


Lost and Found

by DemonsDaughter



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One)
Genre: Dubious Consent, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Gangbang, M/M, Master/Slave, Mech Preg, Mpreg, Sparklings, Sticky Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-16
Updated: 2014-01-31
Packaged: 2018-01-04 18:56:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 30,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1084537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DemonsDaughter/pseuds/DemonsDaughter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Abandoned and left to die as a sparkling, Astrotrain is left out in the middle of a corpse- strewn battlefield to perish. With little hope for survival, he is recovered by Helex and eventually brought into the DJD as a pet. When Megatron disagrees, the hunters swiftly become the hunted.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> ~A story I thought might be fun experimenting with a backstory for Astrotrain. He might have been created by Shockwave in the real G1 verse, but this is a fanfiction and I'm just going to have fun. Hopefully all of you will, too!~

The Carrier rested while the Sire of the sparklings carefully looked them all over, the litter of seven quite impressive for a grounder and an aerial type. His mate was the grounder, so he supposed there was more room to carry and his frame was stronger for it, but still. Seven was quite a feat! But one of the crying mechlings stood out from the others.

The Sire narrowed his optics, hoping he was seeing something incorrectly as he reached out and picked up the mewling creation that had caught his sight. The sparkling he held was dominantly purple like his Carrier with gray markings, also sporting the start of a yellow head crest. He had the wings of a shuttle on his back, that part of his frame not concerning whatsoever. It was the strange wheels that sat in between his shoulders and his collar plating that worried the bot. He examined the tiny thing over and felt his tank sink. This mech was not something they wanted to keep.

"What's wrong with it?" the Carrier asked, sounding tired and not all that interested. The labor had been long and hard, so he wasn't exactly excited to deal with the little monsters that caused his agony.

"He's...I think he's deformed. He's got the shuttle wings like you but...these weird wheels in between his neck and shoulder plating. Look." the Sire said, handing over the mechling and letting his mate try to figure out what had gone wrong.

"Yep, probably didn't develop right. Get rid of it. We have enough here to keep us busy with, anyways."

"Yeah, sure. Where so you want me to put him?"

"I don't know, just dump it in that battle site just outside the city. No one will care or notice it there."

The Sire took the tiny newborn mechling and carried him outside their somewhat run down home in Tarn, the city a little higher end than Kaon but not by much. The litter would be hard for them to care for, but by being Decepticons, Megatron would send them extra rations because they had produced six soldiers for him in the long run. It wasn't an act of love, but of necessity. The world was too harsh and they had to do everything they could to get by and survive until it was over.

"Sorry little guy. Hope Primus takes you in." the Sire said quietly as he walked them out to the huge valley still stinking of energon and mech fluids spilled from a recent battle. The creator felt a pang of guilt for leaving his creation out there to die, but it wasn't right to keep a deformed mech alive. He wouldn't be anything and Megatron would have him executed or worse, given to Shockwave for experiments. This was the best way to go.

"What am I saying, of course he will." he said softly, kissing the sparkling's forehead and getting a soft burble back. The sparkling stared at him with wide red optics, reaching his tiny hands out to try and touch his Sire. The mech turned his gaze away, telling himself that if he got too attached he wouldn't be able to do it.

"Sorry." he said, quickly putting the mechling down in between two dead mechs.

The sparkling saw his creator turning to go, wailing and kicking. He was leaving him behind! His cries got more desperate once his Sire was out of optic range, begging him to come back and pick him up. He was scared, it was cold, and he didn't like the silence of the dead battlefield.

But his Sire never came back.

***

"Vos, don't bother Tesarus." Tarn said, noticing how the smaller bot was darting around the much larger one and trying to get him angry. It was all a fun little game for the strange mech who only spoke Primal Vernacular and refused to be at all social with his team.

"Get this little slag out of my way or I'll step on him!" Tesarus growled, getting ready to kick Vos out of the way, held back only by Kaon.

"We all know he has problems, just leave it." the blind mech said, getting an unseen glare from Tesarus. Kicking Vos would have offered some fun in a boring mission that consisted of looking through an abandoned battlefield.

They were currently searching for one mech who had given information to the Autobot side and was said to have been in the battle. He had never returned to Kaon headquarters, signaling he was either left for dead or he had deserted on top of his other crime. So there they were, searching through the torn gray frames looking for a bot that fit their description. Once they found him, he had better hope he was dead. They took pride in their torture methods and would make him suffer dearly for what he had done against their Lord Megatron.

Tarn led the group, Helex right behind him. The big smelter bot had little interest in bothering Tesarus or dealing with a deranged bot like Vos. Kaon was okay, but for the most part he stuck near Tarn and acted like his second in command. Not that Tarn was going to die anytime soon. The tank was more than vicious and had the power of his spark destructing vocalizer on his side.

Tarn soon had them split up to cover more ground and to get Vos away from Tesarus who was now threatening to shove Vos's very long gun barrel up his aft. To Vos that idea was not all that unappealing, so he pestered Tesarus some more before going off to search for their runaway bot.

Helex went on his own way, turning over bodies as he waded through the slickness of gore and spilled energon under his pedes. It smelled and he disliked it a great deal, being a brute but not one without certain standards. Battle stench was never easy to get out of ones plating afterwards and he hated to recharge with it stifling him in his quarters of their ship.

He was at the outer edge of the battlefield when his audio receptors picked up on a sound. His head perked up and he glanced around to find none of his teammates were close by, now curious as to what was making such odd noises on an abandoned field of death. Carefully looking at the bodies, he found no survivors that could be producing the sound, so it had to be something else.

Helex nearly stepped on it, having turned around to head back to the others when his optics caught sight of a tiny little thing laying in between two torn up frames of Autobots. He knelt down and stared dumbly at a newly born sparkling, the mechling crying constantly. He growled and backed away, not liking little stupid creatures like that. Sparklings were weak and he hated weakness.

He turned to leave it there, uninterested in picking it up until the mechling started wailing louder, reaching out for him as he left. The mechling had obviously been abandoned out there for some reason, yet he seemed perfectly healthy. Grumbling to himself about getting soft, he turned back around and picked up the aerial in his smaller set of arms.

The mechling stopped crying instantly, reaching out and curling his fingers around a piece of armor plating to hold onto. His frame was cold and somewhat pale, having been left out in the elements for a night and somehow managing to survive until that morning. Helex had to hand it to the little slag. He was a survivor.

"Can't see why I'm not allowed to have a pet, too. Kaon's got one. What do you say to that, little slag? You can be my own personal mech pet." Helex said with a grin, getting a happy chirp back. "Alright then, let's go show you to Tarn."

Helex walked over bodies, crushing the frames and ignoring the sounds of snapping and cracking. It was gross even to him to have to walk through the old gore, but he could wash it all off later. He found Tarn by himself, the huge tank mech glancing over at him when he saw his teammate carrying something.

"What do you have, Helex?" he asked, vocalizer smooth. Helex could tell he was curious and in a good mood, so it was a fine time to show him what he had found.

"Found myself a pet. Like Kaon's but smarter."

Tarn peered at the tiny mechling in Helex's arms, the shuttle chirping cutely and reaching out for him. The purple faceplate was intriguing to the sparkling and he wanted to touch it. Tarn pulled back and growled, not at all interested in being touched by the little wretch.

"There will be no sparklings among out ranks."

"Tarn, come on! Kaon gets to have a mechanimal, why can't I have this? He won't get in the way and when he gets older he can be useful!" Helex insisted, the sparkling burbling at him as he talked. He was already starting to learn Helex's vocal pattern.

"That turbo fox is a Sparkeater. This is not a mechanimal pet, nor will it add anything to the group." Tarn rumbled, vocalizer starting to make painful frequencies for Helex's audios. "Put it back."

"Nuh-uh, I want him."

"Put. It. Back." Tarn spat, making his vocalizer pierce the other mech with pain. Helex whined, backing away a few steps as if that would help.

The change in Tarn brought Tesarus over, the living grinder spotting the sparkling and smirking at Helex.

"Has the big boiler gotten soft?" he asked, reaching over and grabbing the mechling. He mewled loudly, the rough handling denting some plating and bending the chubby start of a shuttle wing.

"That's my new pet you're fragging around with!" Helex snapped, ramming into the other bot and snatching his prize back. "Finders keepers. He's MINE."

Tesarus glared and rubbed his side where the other Titan of a mech had bashed into him. He lumbered back over and glared down the mechling, getting him to start crying. That was when he saw the very interesting qualities the little thing possessed.

"Helex...I think you found a triple changer! Primus, that was actually a good find!"

"Don't act so surprised! I know good things when I see them!" Helex snapped back, hugging the mechling tight to his chest. This was his trophy!

"What?!" Tarn snapped, checking the mechling over better this time. His optics brightened when he saw the start of the shuttle wings as well as wheels. While lower class fools would think this was a deformed sparkling, in fact it was an amazingly rare creation.

"You can keep it." Tarn decided with a nod. The triple changer could be of use to them later in some way.

~Why does he get a toy?~ Vos whined, the mech speaking only to Tarn since he alone could translate and understand him.

"Helex found it, he can keep it. So long as it doesn't get in the way of our missions, I see no reason why he can't. And when the bot gets older, he can help the entire team." Tarn said with a nasty tone to his voice. "Helping" meant many different things, but the way Tarn used it it was not favorable for the unnamed sparkling.

"Fine, when he's older we can all frag him. But I get the seals." Helex declared firmly, staking his claim now and refusing to budge.

"We will see." Tarn said, knowing quite well if he wanted, he could take the bot's seals since he was the leader and outranked Helex. The smelter growled, glaring him down as he held the sparkling closer to his chest plates.

~I want to see it! Why am I not allowed to see it?!~ Vos demanded, the second smallest to the division trying to grab the small creature out of Helex's arms. The massive smelter snarled at him and used his larger arm to smack Vos out of the way.

"Back OFF!" Helex spat, hugging the now crying mechling closer to his frame. "You're making him weird! Your own stupid will rub off on him!"

~Tarn! Tell him he must allow me to see it! I like pets!~ Vos said, trying to grab the Sparkeater turbo fox. The little creature dashed away and hid behind his master, not enjoying to be handled by the mech whatsoever. Vos was not gentle and biting him didn't seem to do anything of use to deter the fool. The mechanimal growled softly and curled up against his master's leg.

"He doesn't have to let you see it. The toy is his." Tarn rumbled dangerously, getting Vos to back off and return to pestering Tesarus. The grinder gave him a good hit to the faceplate and sent him away yelping to the back of the group.

"We need to move on from this battle field and find a place to lodge for the night. Vos, scout over that hill and see if anything could see us. We will set up camp there if all is well." the massive tank mech declared, blazing red optics looking to Vos. The lithe mech went bounding off through the bodies to look. With luck they would be able to stay there and track their elusive prey in the morning.


	2. Chapter 2

Helex was glad they had found a place to make camp and he was able to construct his own temporary tent away from the others. He had left the mechling outside in a little area he outlined with rocks. It would keep him inside and out of trouble as he worked on setting up the shelter. It was getting dark and he needed it up soon.

The triple changer made a loud cheep and kicked his legs when Helex made a grunt of disproval from the tent. Fragging stupid thing was collapsing on one side and he couldn't stand it. Glancing over his shoulder at the noise, the mech grumbled again and continued working. Just ignore the mechling...it wasn't that important...

Another, louder cheep came from the sparkling.

"What do you want?!" Helex vented, larger pair of arms still battling with the tent.

"Chuuuuurrr..." came a cute reply, the mechling reaching out for Helex.

"Not now. Once I get this up, I'll deal with you."

Amazingly the mechling kept himself busy staring at the starry sky and playing with some smooth rocks. Burbling loudly, he brought one up to his mouth and suckled at it, turning again to look at what Helex was doing. The mech hadn't noticed his newly adopted sparkling was getting into trouble, getting the last touches on the tent figured out.

"That is dangerous, little one." Tarn's smooth voice purred, the tank kneeling down over the mechling's pen and taking the rock out of his mouth. The triple changer wailed, kicking and fussing until he was picked up. Tarn's optics brightened with interest, once again checking out the start of a gloriously rare Cybertronian.

"What was the little slag doing?!" Helex demanded, not in the mood to hear he did something wrong.

"He was trying to eat rocks, Helex. You cannot leave them unattended for long."

"How would you know?!"

"I am an intelligent and refined mech, Helex. I read all sorts of data pads, some of which contained information on sparklings."

"Whatever. I know how to take care of it." Helex said, smirking when he finished the tent and stepped back to admire his work. Tarn watched him, the triple changer currently trying to suckle on his fingertip.

"Then what do they eat?"

"Frag you, I don't know! Energon! We all eat that."

"What kind of energon?"

"Slaggit all, Tarn! Give me the little brat!"

Tarn passed the mechling over and watched as Helex tried to feed it from a cube. The sparkling pawed at it and tried to drink from it, but it was too hard. He couldn't crack through the cube corner at all since the material was so thick. The failure to get the energon got the tiny thing bawling, washed fluid pouring down his optics.

"Stop it! Stop! Right now! SHUT UP!" Helex shouted into the sparkling's faceplate and causing yet more wailing. Tarn rolled his optics and took the mechling back, singing quietly and calming the tiny bot down instantly. Helex glared, a frown on his faceplate.

"Don't be so loud with him. And use his designation." he said, checking for any sign the sparkling was already programmed with one. Sometimes bots would do it right after the litter was born. "Ahh, here we are! His designation is Astrotrain! Rather unique, I must say."

"You're weird, knowing all this stuff about sparklings. Aren't you supposed to be the vicious leader of the DJD?" Helex snarked, drinking the energon cube he had offered down.

"Do you have any reason to believe I have lost my touch?" Tarn growled, vocalizer causing a great deal of pain to Helex's audio receptors and making his spark pulse rapidly. The smelter backed off right away, bowing his head in submission. He might be the second bot in charge, but he wasn't leader and he knew it.

"No, Tarn."

"Exactly. Now, go to town and find a bottle and filtered energon for little Astrotrain...unless you would rather use fuel lines. You'd have to activate those yourself, you know..."

"No way! I'm not going to town for the little scrap of a thing! He should be thankful I'm bothering to look at him at all!"

"Hurry back. It's getting late." Tarn cooed to further pester the irate mech.

"Okay, fine! Frag, shut up! Why can't anyone shut up?!" Helex snarled as he stormed out of their camp and back over the rise that overlooked the battlefield. Tesarus, the bot currently on guard duty, ignored him entirely as the smelter walked out of the camp. Whatever he was doing, he was slagged off about it. Best to leave four-arms be.

***

Helex hated going into crowded areas where bots were practically swarming over one another. Gritting his dentas with annoyance, he lumbered down the Main Street and finally found a shop that was advertising for sparkling and youngling stuff. He found it hard to believe any neutral would want to have little brats during the start of a war, but weirder things had happened.

Pushing his way through the crowd and into the store, Helex wanted to purge at all the gaudy sparkling things. Special plush blankets, ridiculous toys, cribs that no one needed...He searched around for a bottle, wanting the simplest thing possible.

"How may I help you today?"

"I need a bottle for a little sl-sparkling I have back home. Got anything?"

"Of course! Right this way!"

Helex nearly knocked over two shelves of sparkling toys on his way over, his huge frame not really meant to fit into small roadside stores. He was glad when he saw a line of sparkling bottles on a shelf and snagged two of them with one of his larger arms.

"Will that be all you want today?" the storekeeper asked, ignoring the fact he had a behemoth of a mech in his shop. He was a paying customer, so he would be happy to let him look around.

"Uh...what else do they need? It's...my first time?"

"Oh, dear Primus! A new Carrier! Let me show you all the things you need. These blankets are great, and these synthetic mesh toys are wonderful, too...

Before Helex knew it he had an armful of sparkling things. What the frag, he had to be losing his mind buying all that stuff! But he had the credits and he didn't want to keep coming back into towns for more things. Buying it all in one place was the best idea.

He grumbled at the price, knowing he was being charged a little more than necessary, but he ignored it for the most part. The mech had to make a living off this lame stuff, he didn't blame him for marking it up so much. Who needed fancy sparkling blankets, anyways? They'd just drool oral fluids all over it...

Stuffing everything he bought into his subspace, the member of the DJD padded out of the store and headed once again through the town and back towards the battlefield and then past that to their camp. Hopefully Tarn was keeping Astrotrain out of harm's way so far, harm being Vos. The little weirdo of a mech was sure to cause some kind of trouble.

Helex trudged through the gore covered battleground and finally made it over the rise to where five tents were pitched for the night. He could see Vos was on guard duty, the other three members of the team in their tents. Passing by Vos without a word, he headed right for Tarn's tent and pushed open the door flap to retrieve his pet.

"Glad to see you made it back." Tarn said with a slight smirk, Astrotrain cuddled in his arms. The mechling noticed Helex come in and peeped loudly, hands waving around with excitement. He wanted to be held by his Almost-Carrier. The tank with him now was his Almost-Sire, but he liked the other mech better.

"I got him all the slag he needs to be happy. Now I'm going to my tent." Helex grunted, taking Astrotrain up in his arms and lumbering back out towards his own tent. He preferred to be alone and felt like once he was safely hidden in his own tent he could deal with the sparkling accordingly.

He slipped inside and zipped the flap closed, venting heavily as he sat down on his sleeping mat. It helped his back not get stiff after a night's rest. A fighter who had a sore back would be much easier to combat...and be uncomfortable. He was a bot who did like some pleasures once and a while, even if he was a ruthless killer.

Astrotrain was chirping and peeping constantly, the mechling quite talkative now that he was with him. Helex didn't know what the bot wanted, so he placed him in his smaller set of arms while his larger ones took out the pile of items he bought for the mechling. Astrotrain burbled at him, trying to touch the biolights that ran from his optics down his cheek plates.

Helex didn't let him reach as he picked out a blanket and filled a bottle full of special filtered energon for the little thing. He vented, unsure what to do as he placed Astrotrain down on the blanket and wrapped him up like a package with a head sticking out one end. Astrotrain squealed happily and somehow got his arms free, waving them around before trying to touch Helex's faceplate again.

"Quit it..." Helex grumbled, cradling the mechling in one smaller arm while he used to other to hold the bottle out to him. The mechling squeaked loudly at the sight of energon and latched onto the bottle, suckling greedily at the much needed fuel.

Helex awkwardly held him there and watched as the tiny creation finished his fuel and hiccuped softly. The smelter didn't know what to do, so he patted the mechling on the back. It seemed to do the trick and soon Astrotrain was settling up against him.

He remembered one of the nubs of starting shuttle wings had been slightly bent from earlier when he was fighting to keep the mech near him, so he unwrapped the sparkling and turned him over onto his back. Seeing the bend, he very gently forced the pliable metal back so it was straight and wouldn't cause a real deformity when he grew older. That got a loud shrieking cry, the little creature not liking that one bit.

"Shut up...Primus, you're fine! I made you better!" Helex insisted, swaddling the newborn in the soft blanket again and holding him close. Sparklings apparently liked hearing spark pulses, so he hoped his would do even if it was a somewhat evil energy.

Astrotrain's fussing stopped, the mechling's audio receptor pressed against warm chest plating. He could hear his Almost-Carrier's spark beat under the armor plates and his steady intakes. Mewling softly, his optics dulled and soon turned off entirely. Helex had never been so happy a bot had gone to recharge. Primus, sparklings were harder to care for than he thought! How would anyone be able to have a litter?!

'Bots are crazy, that's why. ' he thought, gently setting the mechling down in more blankets and laying down himself. 'Crazy, caring fools. They need to learn how to hate. Maybe then the world would make more sense.'

He turned for his optics and let himself rest, getting as much sleep as he could for the next day.


	3. Chapter 3

Helex didn't get much recharge that night. Astrotrain had woken up consistently, cheeping for more energon. He glared every time, finally snarling and laying back and covering his optics with his arm. He wasn't advanced enough to turn off his audio receptors, so he had to either listen to crying until the sparkling got what he wanted or just feed it and have a few cycles of peace in between.

"You're a little slag, you know that?" he grumbled, yawning after he spoke as he held Astrotrain in one arm and offered the bottle to him. The mechling squeaked and grasped it between his tiny gray hands, staring at his Almost-Carrier with bright red optics. "I hate you..." Helex insisted, almost sounding like he wanted to convince himself of the fact. Hating something that really did look to you for support was a little harder than he thought.

Astrotrain finished the bottle in no time at all and whined, trying to reach up again and touch the biolights that ran from Helex's optics to his jawline. The mech rumbled a warning and didn't let him reach, glaring a little to make sure the sparkling knew that was off limits. No one got to touch his face. No one.

Astrotrain's lip quivered and he started crying, washer fluid pouring out of the mechling's optics and down his cheek plates. Helex nearly dropped the newborn creation, unsure what to do to make him stop bawling. Panicking, he started yelling "shut up!" again only to get more screaming and wailing. What was he doing wrong?! The brute of a mech hastily put Astrotrain down in the blankets he'd piled up and dumped a plush mechanimal puppy toy beside him.

"Play with that and stop crying! Frag, why do you have to be so loud?! Even Vos doesn't cry that much when he gets pounded!" he groaned, laying back and propping his head up just enough so he could see what the little menace of a sparkling was up to.

The triple changer ceased crying, sniffling a tiny bit as he reached out for the plush toy. Once tiny hands got a grasp on it, Astrotrain pulled it closer and hugged it, mouthing on the blunt ear of the cyber-wolf like toy. Helex let him teethe on it, feeling there was no danger in him swallowing anything this time.

'Little weirdo tried to eat a rock. Who thinks that's a good idea? Even as a sparkling bots are smarter than that...' he thought, just assuming things now. He really had no idea how sparklings worked. Pit, he hadn't even seen a sparkling in vorns until he nearly stepped on the one he had now.

"You better make a good frag toy when you're older, or at least be worth something. Because right now you suck." he sneered, getting a happy burbling sound in return. Astrotrain had no idea what he was being told and blissfully went back to cuddling with his toy.

Now that the mechling was happy for at least a little while, Helex allowed himself to slip into recharge and get whatever amount of rest he could.

***

Helex woke to his internalized alarm the next morning, blearily looking around to find something was missing. The sparkling was gone. Snarling with rage, he instantly found himself more awake as he tore through the tent flap and stepped out.

"Who took my pet?!" he demanded, Tesarus and Kaon sitting outside their tents with their morning energon rations. Kaon didn't bother to speak, knowing Helex would get his answer soon enough.

Vos was sitting with Astrotrain in his lap, the sparkling giggling at him when he took off his face and played some deranged form of peek-a-boo. Helex couldn't believe what he was watching, really, Astrotrain squealing with laughter when Vos put his face back on and revealed himself.

"What are you doing with him?! You'll corrupt him and make the thing as weird as you are!"

~We're playing~ Vos answered in Primal Vernacular. Helex growled, stalking closer to take back what was his, only to be stopped by a powerful hand on his shoulder. He turned and saw Tarn, the massive tank mech shaking his head.

"Vos has done nothing to harm him. Let him do as he likes for now."

"Whose side are you on?! That's MINE and I want it back!"

"Think, you might be able to get some more rest if you allow others to handle the mechling. It is in your best interest, really."

Helex knew Tarn was being difficult just to torture him in his own way and glared. Fine. He wouldn't play the game Tarn wanted. Tarn liked struggling and turmoil, so he wouldn't give it to him. Huffing loudly, he lumbered back over to his tent and sat down outside it, taking his morning ration out and drinking it down like the other DJD members.

Astrotrain peeped at Vos, flailing his arms around when he saw Helex look away from him and turn to leave. When he saw that the sparkling instantly began to wail, the sound quite awful to hear. Helex covered his audio receptors and Vos flinched, picking up the mechling and carrying him quickly to the other bot to dump him in the smelter's smaller set of arms.

The mechling hushed after that, giggling happily and cuddling up with his Almost-Carrier. He had been so scared he would leave him all alone! He might be young, but he knew he had been abandoned by his true Carrier only a few solar cycles before. His tiny gray hands curled around one of Helex's fingers and started sucking on it, staring at Helex with pair of glowing red optics.

"He's such a problem! Frag it all!" Helex gagged, drinking down hi energon ration before offering Astrotrain another bottle of filtered energon. With the rate this mechling was drinking, he'd run out of the filtered cubes within the week! The mechling was going to be a big triple changer. A shuttle and...something else. They'd have to find out as he grew older.

***

Kaon had found them a trail to follow, getting some useful information from a few nervous, low class bots. They hadn't wanted to keep any secrets from a member of the DJD. That would never do one well to lie to them. So now that they had a lead, they had to pack up and move out. Apparently their prey had escaped the city of Tarn and headed towards Gygax to seek aid from the Autobot traitors. It would be a journey to make it there, but they would do it. The DJD never gave up on their quarries.

Helex was in charge of Astrotrain for the move, grumbling the whole time as he packed up all the sparkling things and then picked up the sparkling in his smaller arms. Astrotrain chirped at him and cling to his hand, Helex trying to ignore him as the triple changer shuffled around in his blanket. Finally he settled down and went into recharge, bright red optics turning off.

"How do you like it so far?" Kaon asked, the blind mech coming up beside Helex as they all walked towards Gygax via the crystal woods.

"Like what?"

"Caring for a pet. It isn't easy." Kaon said, picking up his Sparkeater turbo-fox and holding it close. The mechanimal barked at him and picked at his cheek, not at all vicious when it came to his master. He liked Kaon a great deal.

"It's...yeah, it's hard. He better be slagging worth it."

"It all depends on what you want to keep him for. I wanted a companion, but you want a...toy."

Kaon sounded disgusted when he said that, not wanting to imagine a sparkling as a toy. He might be trained to be evil and his memories of his past life warped enough to make him uninterested in sorting them out, but he knew he could never use a mech like the others. He was in the DJD purely to uphold the glorious reign of Megatron, nothing more. He personally took no fun in raping bots or keeping prisoners for his own gains.

"I just want a frag toy. He'll be good for that since he'll get big enough to actually be some fun. The small ones are too difficult to deal with. I break them."

Kaon sniffed distastefully and padded off after that, not interested in chatting any longer. Helex was not his type of bot. Simple, big, and rude. To him Vos was better company than the smelter or Tesarus. And Tarn...Tarn was Tarn. He was either very refined or a complete brute like the others. It all depended on his mood when he finally caught up with his targeted bot.

Helex watched Kaon leave, his turbo-fox still cuddled in his arms. The little mechanimal was nibbling at his mater's jawline, continuing to behave until he was set back down to romp around. The smelter looked down at Astrotrain's small form, the sparkling mewling in his recharge before he brought his hand up to his faceplate and sucked his thumb digit.

'Whatever. You're still a pet.' he thought, refusing to care. He just couldn't care about things that much or else he'd be too upset when he lost them.

The group made good pace that solar cycle, the bots moving quickly towards their new destination up until that lunar cycle fell over them. Tarn called again to make camp and sent Vos out to scout ahead. There was nothing but crystal and metal around them in the form of organic trees and rocks, no towns of signs of Cybertronians anywhere. But they could never be too sure.

"Fragging Pit I'm going to be out of filtered energon for you." Helex realized, Astrotrain requiring double what any normal sparkling was supposed to get for feedings. The bot was going to be huge when he was older and was already showing signs he was growing.

Astrotrain giggled and squeaked when Helex put him down in his blankets inside the tent. He assured that he would come back, the mechling staring intently at him before rolling over and playing with a model plane. Helex took the moment to sneak out of the tent and risk the horrible screaming fits the little thing would go into when left for too long. Probably still traumatized from his Creators leaving him in a battlefield or whatever.

"Tarn?" he called, peering into the leader's tent. Tarn was laying on his back self-servicing, handsome purple and black spike being stroked firmly in one hand. It wasn't anything Helex hadn't seen before, so he calmly asked his question.

"What do I do if I ran out of filtered energon for the little brat? Also, you want any help?"

Tarn motioned for him to come over, so the smelter did as was told and zipped the tent flap behind him. The tank vented softly before he spoke, powerful hips backing when he traced the tip of his sharp length with his thumb.

"You'll have to activate a fuel line for him. It's not hard."

"I don't know what the frag I'm doing. I'm not a family mech as you seem to be."

Tarn rolled his fiery optics and dragged Helex closer, hand sliding under some of his softer middle plating and searching for one of the six fuel lines every bot was created with. He grinned when he found one and gave it a quick pinch to activate the protocol, the rubber nub leaking a little energon.

"Ow! Hands off!"

"There. It's done." Tarn said simply, dragging Helex closer to his frame and suddenly pinning the smelter under him. "I think I will take your offer to aid me. Open up."

Helex growled deeply but did as he was told, knowing unless Tarn wanted to be submissive, he would be the one calling the shots from there on out. His valve cover clicked and slid open, Tarn pinning him under his weight and quickly mounting. That got a loud yelp from the other bot, Helex impaled by the huge rod of a spike. He could feel his valve folds being forced aside and the bludgeon of a spike push into him until fully sheathed.

"Ahhh....let...let me get used to it...been a while." he panted, clinging to Tarn's tank tread shoulders for support.

Tarn let him adjust before setting a good pace, thankfully not in the mood to pound him too hard. Helex wasn't interested in that unless it was a good victory frag. This round didn't last too long, either, Tarn taking what pleasure he wanted before pulling out and spraying transfluid into an old cloth to avoid getting the mess everywhere.

"Go feed the sparkling." Tarn grunted, sated as he lay back down and contentedly picked up a data pad to read. Helex got up and lumbered out, aching between the legs but willing to deal with it.

He had a stupid sparkling sitting job to do.


	4. Chapter 4

Helex returned to his tent where he had left Astrotrain, glad to see the mechling was completely fine. Greeted with a loud squeak when he entered, the mech vented softly. Obviously the sparkling was hungry and looking for more energon, Astrotrain's hands opening and closing as he stared at Helex. Frag, the little thing was so tiny! How could he need that much energon?!

"Okay, so...I don't have any more filtered energon in bottles. But I got Tarn to do something that apparently can feed you."

Astrotrain just stared at him when he spoke, making a loud burble. Helex rubbed his face with his larger set of hands, knowing this was going to be a long night.

He wasn't sure how this was supposed to work, so he lay down on his side and placed Astrotrain's faceplate close to where the fuel line had been activated. Astrotrain chirped, reaching out and touching the warm plating with a curious glimmer in his optics. Helex growled softly, nudging the mechling closer to his side where the stupid fuel line was supposed to be.

Astrotrain suddenly understood what was going on and went for the rubber nub he spotted, latching onto it with his mouth and suckling quietly. Helex made a loud grunt when he felt a sudden rush of warmth flow through to that area. Well, at least it was working. Astrotrain seemed happy with its performance anyways, tiny hands curled around a piece of thinner armor plating.

Helex tried to ignore the warm feeling and the gentle pulls and tugs from the sparkling as he nursed. This was the weirdest thing he had ever done in his life cycle and he hoped no one walked in on him while it was going on. Grumbling about how cruelly he would kill them if they did, Helex rested his head on a thin mesh pillow and hoped that he could just sleep.

In little time he was in recharge, snoring softly while Astrotrain finished up and happily snuggled into Helex's side. Chirping quietly when he realized he could get away with more, the mechling happily crawled up and tumbled over one arm. Then he nestled against Helex's warm neck cabling with a content huff. He went right into recharge, comforted by the larger mech's intakes and soft snores. Tonight would be a good night.

***

Helex amazingly slept through the lunar cycle, not waking when Astrotrain returned to the fuel line. His tanks were a little lower in the morning, but he had four like tank models so it wasn't that bad. He was at 70%, nothing to worry about.

"The frag are you doing?!" he grumbled when he woke, seeing a purple and gray frame right in his faceplate. He was greeted with a loud cheep and patting on his faceplate. "Uuuhg, you're driving me crazy!"

Helex got a happy chirp in return and vented, knowing the mechling couldn't understand a thing he said. He apparently didn't understand tone, either...Sitting up, he pulled the sparkling along with him and just looked at the tiny creation, Astrotrain kicking and mewling at being held under his arms for no reason. Helex made a "shhhh" at him and the mechling tried to reach for him, making little huffs when he couldn't get to the bot's facial biolights, the bright and exciting details perfect for a sparkling to obsess over.

"You are going to corrupt me, you little Pit spawn." he growled, surprisingly finding himself holding the tiny thing close to his chest plates in a form of a hug. He glared a moment later when he realized he was smiling and thinking all sorts of lame, non-DJD thoughts. That kind of slag would get him fired for sure!

Standing up, he thought of all sorts of nasty things as he left the tent in order to make up for his moment of weakness with the mechling, heading for Kaon's space to dump Astrotrain there for a while. It was his turn for guard duty. It was only two or so cycles until morning light, but he still had a job to do. Thankfully Kaon was already awake, sitting in his tent listening to an audio recording of a data pad novel. Even though he had no optics, he still liked to learn and "read" in his own way.

"This is yours for the next two cycles. Have fun." Helex said, holding out a happy little triple changer to the red and yellow mech. Kaon couldn't see him, but reached out and took the sparkling in his arms as if he had known exactly where the little one had been the whole time.

"Have fun on guard duty."

"Oh, yeah right! Guard duty sucks..." Helex grumbled, heading out to relieve Tarn from his post.

Kaon gently held Astrotrain in his arms, the mechling mewling and fussing the whole time. Kaon started to rock him while his turbo-fox wooed curiously and sniffed at the newborn. Astrotrain chirped when he saw the mechanimal and reached out to pat its muzzle, the Sparkeater beast amazingly behaving.

"How about I tell you a story? Or you can listen to my recorded data pad if you'd like." Kaon said to the mechling, putting on a very small smile. Astrotrain giggled and squirmed around in the arms that held him, liking to hear bots talk. It was nice to hear all kinds of voices and sounds.

Kaon decided to continue listening to his current novel, turning in the data pad again and leaning back with Astrotrain in his arms. The tiny mechling hushed and listened intently to the new voice that came out of the data pad. He reached out and touched the device, clinging to it in some attempt to understand what it was. Kaon let him hold on, feeling the tension and knowing the data pad had to have been grabbed. It was a normal thing sparklings did, so he let Astrotrain do as he liked.

"Rest, little one. Helex will be back in two cycles and then we'll move out again."

Astrotrain didn't need to be told twice to rest, the mechling feeling tired as it was. He snuggled his frame against the bot holding him and shut off his optics for a nap. And when he woke back up, he'd be able to go with his Almost-Carrier and do fun things with him. Maybe they could play with his stuffed mechanimal toy...

The triple changer didn't have time to contemplate the absence of his favorite plush much longer, fast asleep before he could begin to cry. Recharge was far stronger than his other desires.

***

"How was the little slag?" Helex asked, pushing his way back into the tent when he was done with guard duty, shocked to see Astrotrain was happily recharging in Kaon's arms. What the frag. He didn't understand what was going on anymore with the mechling. He apparently liked everyone...

Helex glared when he realized he was thinking that, wondering what had gotten into him. What did he care if the little brat liked more of the gang than just him? He was getting soft or something. Caring was never a good thing.

"I should have left it in the battlefield. Or better yet, stepped on him." he grumbled, optics narrowing.

"Don't say such things. I know you don't really feel that way." Kaon said with a dark look, suddenly grabbing Astrotrain by his tiny neck and letting his electric currents on his shoulders flare up. It looked like he was about to kill the wailing mechling. Kaon was merely doing it to get a reaction out of Helex and see how much he really did care. If there was no interest in the little thing, he'd leave him to die as he said.

"No! Give him back!" Helex snarled, snatching Astrotrain away and hugging him close and trying to quiet his crying.

"I knew you liked the little guy. Just admit it." Kaon said with a smug grin, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Nuh-uh. I just didn't want you to ruin him before I got my full fun from him." Helex growled, taking Astrotrain out of the tent and making his way back to his own. They were going to move out soon, but he had to settle Astrotrain before they did. He hadn't stopped crying after being handled so badly by Kaon.

"Quiet...shut up...stop..." Helex begged softly, heading back to his tent and rocking the tiny creation. In some weird way it felt like the right thing to do.

Astrotrain's wails turned to sniffles and he snuggled into Helex's smaller set of arms within a few moments. Helex was shocked to find his lips moved into the form of a smile, bending them quickly the other way into a frown once he realized what he was doing. Good thing he caught himself there! No one could ever know he was losing some of his nastiness.

"It's all your fault, you little slag." he rumbled to Astrotrain, the mechling giggling at him and staring at him with bright, fiery optics.

He was about to say more when Tesarus's deep voice called out a warning.

"Autobots approaching! Looks like it's Prowl's group!"

Helex felt his energon tanks sink. Prowl meant some of the Elite guard and he didn't know what he'd do with Astrotrain during a battle. Well, now was the time to find out! Quickly packing what he could into his subspace and taking down his tent, the member of the DJD got ready for whatever was coming to them.


	5. Chapter 5

Helex had to leave Astrotrain in one of the tents, the mechling wailing loudly about being left so suddenly. The member of the DJD ignored him entirely, heading out to join his brethren to battle the Autobots. They were fools to take the group on, even if they were the Elite fighters.

"They'll be here soon. Vos is getting the tents down just in case we have to pick up and run quick. Not that we have ever had to do it before." Tesarus rumbled, the mech turning to look at the coming group of bots. "There are more of them than there are of us."

"Tarn's vocalizer should do a job on them. We have nothing to worry about." Helex grunted, larger set of arms making fists and getting ready to go anyways. "Sometimes it slags me off that we don't get a lot of action. Tarn hogs all the fun."

Tesarus was about to answer but didn't get the chance. The Autobots were already upon them and it was time to shut up and fight. Tarn let his soldiers go after the Autobots, Tesarus taking on the Lamborghini Twins while Vos battled with Jazz. Ultra Magnus went for Helex and Kaon was left with the other nameless bots Tarn cared little for. He was most interested in Prowl, the Autobot second in command holding a blaster up to the tank mech.

"We know who you are and what you do. It is time to finish this vicious cycle and end you for good."

"I do not "end" so easily, Prowl." Tarn rumbled, vocalizer making the other bot's spark contract and struggle to continue normal pulses. Prowl snarled, bending over in pain. It was quite amazing that a mech had such abilities, but he would end that.

Before Tarn could put him through any more pain, he raised his gun and pointed it at the Tarn's neck. The huge tank never expected blasts from a gun like that to hurt much thanks to his thick plating and massive frame, but this was a different kind of gun. His finger squeezed the trigger and sent an acid pellet right at Tarn's neck where he knew the vocal box was situated.

Tarn howled when the pellet exploded and ate right through his neck cabling, the acid potent and making it easily to his voice box. He clawed at himself and staggered back, optics wide with surprise behind his mask. Prowl stood tall again, the pressure on his spark gone before he knew it. Tarn was not nearly as formidable without his special voice.

-Tarn has been hit! Knock the other bots out! We need to get him out of here! From what it looks like, he took an acid pellet right to the neck. His ability may no longer function- Tesarus said, taking command for the moment.

Vos managed to get away from Jazz and dash off towards Tarn, tackling Prowl and sending the two of them rolling. He hissed and spit as he clawed into Prowl's chest in an attempt to rip out his spark and get him back for what he did to Tarn. Prowl grappled with him, not willing to give up easily.

"I've got Tarn! Vos, we need a bridge out of here!"

Vos thankfully heard even in his scrap with Prowl, summoning one with his ability. It would take a great deal of his strength, but he could manage. Helex punched Ultra Magnus back and went to grab Tarn, helping his stricken leader to his pedes and towards the newly opened ground bridge. Where it led, he did not know, but anywhere was better than there.

Tesarus was dealing with most of the enemy as was Kaon now, Vos using all his concentration to keep the bridge open. Helex pushed Tarn into it and ran to one of the tents, Astrotrain wailing for him. He snatched the mechling up in his arms and bolted for the bridge, Kaon having slipped through and Tesarus close to entering.

"Let's go!" Tesarus snarled, kicking Sideswipe hard in his jaw and sending the bot back into his golden armored brother. At least they were going to be able to make it through. "Vos! Come on!"

Vos threw himself into the bridge, the energy only able to last a few klicks without him focusing on it. Tesarus went in right after him with Helex on his tail. They had escaped the battle for now, but their prey had managed to get away and now their leader was in bad condition.

***

Amazingly Vos had gotten the space bridge to Pharma's med bay, his strange little mind working for once and getting them somewhere they actually needed to go. Helex was relieved when he jumped through the bridge into a waiting room of their med bay and were greeted by a very annoyed looking medic.

"I want to yell at all of you, but at least you had the decency to use the waiting room. Get in here and be quiet. Luckily I don't have any patients here for the rest of the day, so I can deal with your sorry group. Here for another T Cog, Tarn?...Tarn?"

Pharma knew something was wrong when he didn't get a reply from the bulky tank, fully expecting a retort to his attitude. He didn't like the DJD at all or Tarn for that matter, but they had been long running patient and doctor, so he knew the bot well enough to figure out something was wrong. It made sense that they wouldn't use a bridge to come to his med bay for no reason, but still. They were an odd group and Vos liked to play jokes. It could have been one of his antics when they arrived, but now Pharma knew better.

"Bring him into the main room and be quick about it." he snapped, letting the brutes do all the work of lugging the heavy tank into the main room of med bay. He had to make sure he had all his tools ready for emergency repairs.

Tesarus and Helex got the brunt of the work, Astrotrain getting passed over to Kaon while his Almost-Carrier had to work. Vos cocked his head when he heard more crying from the tiny mechling and tried to cheer him up by playing peek-a-boo with his own face. Thankfully it worked and Astrotrain began to giggle instead of cry, the sparkling really not that hard to care for in the grand scheme of things.

Pharma stared at the acid damage in shock, never having seen such a bad hit to the neck with such a weapon. Tarn must have taken it close range and square to the front of his neck. Obviously he had been overconfident and never expected the new technology.

Tarn made a choked growl when Pharma tried to examine how deep the wound was, the hulking bot raising a hand to swat him aside.

"Do you want my help or not?"

Silence.

"That's what I thought. I'm going to put you under, so just relax and when you wake up your vocalizer and neck will all be intact." Pharma said, quickly taking a syringe full of sedative and administering it right into the main energon line of Tarn's arm.

There was a garbled snarl of discomfort before more silence came over the med bay, Tarn knocked out quite quickly. Pharma saved the most potent of sedatives for the brute. One never knew when they might need to use it against the bot...

"If he doesn't wake up, you're dead." Tesarus hissed, grinder blades whirring ominously. Pharma waved him off, knowing he could handle the bots until Tarn woke.

"He will be just fine and wake up in about six cycles. Sit down and stay out of my way. These are very delicate repairs. They might even take longer than six cycles, now that I can really get a good look. Who managed to hit him?"

"Prowl shot him point-blank with a pellet gun. And we all see what happened after that." Tesarus said, quite displeased to see Tarn in such bad condition.

"He'll be back up and in working condition soon. It didn't entirely ruin his vocalizer, so things should be back to the way they always are soon enough." Pharma replied, calling over two medical drones to help him. He didn't dare com First Aid, not with the DJD all stuffed into med bay.

Helex was ignoring all the medical garbage now, glad that Tarn was in good hands and would be fine. Pharma knew what he was doing. He had his own concerns for himself, realizing there would be no need to set up a tent in med bay and that the others would surely see him feeding Astrotrain. The sparkling was fussing because he was overdue with his mid day fuel and he would be quite loud if he was denied for too much longer.

'Suck up your pride and just do it. The thing needs fuel and they'll leave you alone if they know they can have some fun with him when he's older. Just let him get his energon and be done with it.' Helex thought to himself as he plodded over to a medical berth and lay down on his side.

Astrotrain knew very well what that meant and squealed excitedly, snuggling up against Helex's side and waiting for the rubber nub of the fuel line to appear. Helex had shut down the activation right before the battle so it didn't interfere somehow.

The moment Astrotrain saw the familiar line he latched onto it, greedily suckling and making soft smacking noises as he did so. Helex grunted at the slight ache in his side when the mechling attached himself, being a little rough since he was hungry. Rumbling softly, he let his head rest on the pillow and shut off his optics, letting the sparkling drink his fill. He'd let go when he was ready, but not before then.

"The frag?!" Tesarus bellowed, seeing what Helex was doing. The bot was losing his fragging mind letting a sparkling nurse off him! "What are you, some nanny? That's idiotic! Make it drink from a cube like every other bot!" he snapped, so disgusted with what he was witnessing.

"Go frag yourself, Tesarus. I have to do this or he'll die. You better hope he lives because he'll be our personal frag toy for the whole group. Tarn agreed to it, so you better back off. Otherwise you won't get a bit of his aft."

"Whatever. Not like I'd want it now that it's sucking slag out of you."

Helex growled but said nothing more, not in the mood to. He'd been tired out by the fight and the pure stress of everything, so the rest was a welcomed feeling. But he was never allowed to rest too long because sooner than he liked he was being bothered again.

"Where did you get this?" Pharma demanded, Astrotrain having curled up against Helex's side once he finished nursing and falling into recharge. The smelter rumbled and protectively curled up around the little bot.

"Found him."

"Do you mind if I give him a quick tune-up?"

"Guess not..."

Helex let Pharma handle Astrotrain, but only where he could see it happening. So the medic had to do everything on that med bay berth where the DJD member lay.

Astrotrain woke up and whined when he was checked over, his optics getting examined as well as his joints and growing shuttle wings. Pharma even checked inside his mouth and behind both valve and spike covers to make sure all was developing correctly. Astrotrain didn't like it one bit and kept crying for Helex, the bot refusing to get him. Pharma was helping, not hurting him.

"Okay, little guy, time for your first anti-virus." Pharma said soothingly, preparing a small syringe with a yellow liquid. Astrotrain did nothing to protest until he felt the sharp prick of the needle and the pressure of fluid being forced into his energon lines. Then he screamed.

Helex and all the other bots in the room covered their audio receptors, shocked at how horrible the sound was. Astrotrain kept screaming even after it was over, wailing even as Helex took him back and tried to comfort the tiny thing. Washer fluid tears were running down the mechling's faceplate as Helex rocked him, the sounds finally turning into whimpers and then soft sniffles.

"Hey, you're fine...Carrier's got you..." Helex whispered, rubbing Astrotrain's back between the shuttle wing nubs. Astrotrain held onto his Almost-Carrier's chest plates, trying to snuggle closer as he stared at the bot he trusted. Why had he let the other mech hurt him?

Pharma vented loudly, glad it was over. Primus, the mechling was loud! He'd behaved so well until the last part, too. It was a pity he had to scream like that. But most sparklings did when they got their required inoculations.

"He'll be all set for a vorn. Then he'll need a booster and maybe a different strain." Pharma said, leaning back on another medical berth. "You have taken good care of him considering your profession." he added, glad that got the living smelter's attention.

"Yeah, it's been a lot of work."

"If you don't want to continue it, there is a great adoption center here. I can always bring him there..."

"Nah, I want him to stick around. He's mine. I found him, so I'm keeping him."

"Whatever you want, mech. He's pretty easy going for a sparkling, to be honest. Usually they're causing all sorts of trouble." Pharma said, heading back over to see if the drones had made progress on Tarn's final repairs.

Helex looked down at his little triple changer, red optics meeting red as they silently stared at one another. The bot would never admit it and hardly wanted to find it in himself, but he was starting to think he cared a little but more for the mechling than he had ever thought he would.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Helex can't really say he doesn't care about his little adopted cutie anymore ;) I know this would never happen in the cannon verse but I don't really care. Sparklings have to be pretty adorable and even a turd like Helex might succumb to their charms. Who knows!


	6. Chapter 6

Tarn made a soft groan when he came back online late into the lunar cycle, trying to rise from his berth only to be shoved back down by Pharma.

"Nuh-uh! I don't think so. You're way overdue for your joint recalibrations and a few anti-viruses. So you're staying down until I say you can get up." Pharma snapped, grouchy as could be. Tarn growled and was about to say no one commanded a thing of him save for Megatron when he was jabbed with a needle right in the lower seam of his aft.

"Get AWAY from me!"

"Didn't like that, did you?" Pharma said, grinning a little as he turned away. He could have given him the shot in his arm seam, but it was fun to torture the torturer.

Tarn glared viciously at the medic, curling up a little on the medical berth and rubbing his sore aft. This Pharma was a skilled bot when it came to medical things, but he was certainly not without drawbacks. Sure, he could murder the bot in a click, but he needed him for his team and his own transplants.

"Where are the others?" Tarn rumbled, looking around the room for the rest of the DJD. Pharma huffed and waved his hand in a dismissive way.

"I sent them to their own private rooms. Vos was causing trouble and distracting me while I was trying to work on your neck cabling and Tesarus was bothering Helex and his little sparkling. I felt it was best to get them all in separate rooms so they could calm down."

"Good." Tarn said, trying to get up again when he felt the medic's hand come down around the nape of his neck and push him down again. His vocalizer turned to a growl and he hoped it was hurting the medic, Pharma making a soft grunt of pain.

"Be still. You have to get some joints calibrated and then you can collect your merry band of idiots and get out of my med bay. Your T Cog is fine so far since you haven't said anything about it being broken."

"My T Cog is fine. Leave it be."

"Don't snap at the one who repairs you. I don't have to, you know. You might be big and scary but I don't fear death like you think. I don't have much to lose." Pharma said, bluffing there but making it seem quite real.

"Ah, but you have Ambulon and First Aid to lose, don't you?"

"We're all going to die in this war anyway."

Tarn cocked his head to the side just as Pharma got to work on his shoulder joint, hands skillfully moving some cramped wiring out of the way so he could move without aches and pains there. Why the medic was bothering to lie to him Tarn didn't know, but it was somewhat amusing and he was doing an admittedly good job on his seams.

"You could die very unpleasantly. My team and I could oblige y-oowww! PHARMA!" Tarn yelp-snarled, vocalizer causing the medic's spark to constrict and create sharp, aching pain. The medic gasped, clutching his chest plates with his hands as he staggered back from the medical berth.

Tarn hissed and gingerly moved his hip joint that had suddenly hurt when the medic was recalibrating it. Pharma had moved well away from the mech now and was busying himself with other work. He could push back the medic programming that demanded he tend to the wretched tank mech, no longer willing to put himself in a place where he could get hurt.

Vos came dashing into the room just as Tarn was about to order Pharma back over to properly repair his hip joint, the black and purple tank glowering behind his mask as Vos was actually treated well by the medic. Pharma even seemed like he didn't mind being pestered right then, giving the skinny mech a grin and patting a berth near where he stood.

"What's the matter, Vos?"

~My back hurts. Tesarus punched it and something cracked~

~Alright, let me have a look at you~ Pharma answered, amazingly learned in Primal Vernacular. All medics knew it since it was within the old medical data files and tablets they studied from.

Tarn watched in shock as Vos did as he was told for once and got on the table, happy to let Pharma prod and poke at his back until he made a short yelp, squirming away from the touch. Pharma patted his side and got out some numbing solution and the tools he needed.

~Feeling better?~ Pharma asked, the clear numbing paste doing its job well on the swollen section of the spinal strut and surrounding cables. They were red hot and showing stress, the punch (or kick) having gotten the section of the strut slightly out of place.

~Yes. Thank you~

"Thank you?!" Tarn growled, not liking that word at all. Vos made a loud keen of pain as his spark tightened in his chest, hands clawing at the medical berth in his misery. "We do not say "thank you" to anyone, Vos."

"Leave him be. He is my patient and he actually needs aid." Pharma snapped back, glaring Tarn down as he went back to work.

~You're fine...no one will hurt you...~ Pharma soothed, Vos's fussing hushed as he lay still and waited for his back to be fixed up. Tarn snarled but left them alone, honestly a little jealous HIS medic was giving more attention to Vos than to himself.

Tarn thought for a long moment about that idea, wondering what had gotten into him. Why would he care if Pharma gave Vos treatment? He would be next in line and things would be sorted out then. But for some reason the idea that he was being ignored bothered him and he glared at the far wall, continuing to mull over what his true reasoning was for the sharp pangs of jealousy.

***

Astrotrain squeaked and pushed his mechanimal plush off the berth, giggling happily when Helex went along with the new game and picked it up. His Almost-Carrier wasn't smiling, but for the moment he didn't really care. He was playing along, so that made things good. Making another happy sound, the sparkling tossed his toy off the berth again and squealed for Helex to bring it back to him.

"Nuh-uh. I'm done picking up your slag. You throw it off, you get it." Helex said, tiring of obeying a sparkling and starting to examine a map in an attempt to locate where their current prey might have run off to. Gygax was the logical choice, but the city of Simfur was only a few solar cycles travel from there and would put more distance between him and the team he knew followed. They would have to head there...

Astrotrain was mewling now, pointing at his toy and begging for Helex to get it. He couldn't reach and he wanted his mechanimal plush...Helex ignored him again and the mechling began to wail, washer fluid tears streaming down his cheeks.

"Okay, okay! Just don't throw it back there again, you little slag!" Helex growled, bending down and grabbing the synthetic cloth and wire mesh canine mechanimal. He slammed it into the berth right in front of Astrotrain and turned back to his work, muttering to himself about other possible routes of escape.

Astrotrain quieted and hugged his plush to his frame, a thumb in his mouth as he stared up at his Almost-Carrier. He was busy. But he was lonely and wanted attention! So he would see if his Almost-Sire was around to play with him.

Helex didn't notice when Astrotrain crawled over to the edge of the medical berth and teetered over the side, landing right on his faceplate with a loud cry. He bawled because it hurt his neck and his back, the tiny mechling bleeding energon from the new cut he'd opened up on his forehead.

This time Helex knew the mechling wasn't playing and quickly left his work to see what happened, his spark fluttering with a moment of panic when he saw Astrotrain was bleeding. He'd fallen off the berth and now there was energon all over the place. Scooping the triple changer up into his arms, he lumbered out of his private room into the main med bay and went right to Pharma.

"What did you do to him?!"

"I wasn't looking and he fell off the berth or something. Just fix him!" Helex demanded, optics nervous as he handed over the wailing bot to Pharma's open arms.

"You're lucky he didn't break his neck! You aren't fit to be taking care of a mechling at all! The adoption center would be far better than anything you can come up with! I had hope for you but this is disgusting! Mechlings are a lot of work and commitment!" Pharma ranted, making Helex hurt even more than Astrotrain did.

"Hey, he's lucky I picked him up at all from the battlefield!"

"I don't care where he came from! Right now you can't seem to get your act together and care for the little thing! You have one of two choices-you either suck up your pride and handle the bot for a while or you give him up entirely. It's your decision."

Helex watched as Pharma placed a mesh patch that would act as a bandage over the cut on Astrotrain's forehead, the mechling still crying while it was being done. He glared at it, starting to formulate the words "you keep him" when Astrotrain spotted him and reached out to be held, the gesture making the smelter rethink what he wanted to say. The bot had been abandoned once and somehow his cold spark wouldn't allow it to happen again.

"I want to keep him. And...I'll do better. I'll try." Helex grumbled, glad when Pharma handed Astrotrain back over and he rubbed the sparkling right between his growing shuttle wings the way he loved. Astrotrain mewled quietly and nuzzled against warm chest plating, tiny hands curling around the edge of his lower collar guard.

"You better try or else I will take him and find him a real family."

~He already has a family~ Vos pointed out, motioning to the members of the DJD that were present. Pharma gagged at that idea, but it was true. Astrotrain did have a family of sorts. It might be the strangest one Pharma had ever seen, but it counted.


	7. Chapter 7

"Tarn, you're better and all of your idiots are, too. Time to move on." Pharma said, the DJD insisting they stay another night in the med bay to plan. Tarn called the shots and if he said they would stay, they would. Pharma had no say in the matter, although he griped and complained about it as much as possible. He had the idea that if he caused enough pain for them to stick around, they might leave on their own to avoid him.

Now it was late into the lunar cycle and the tank mech had come out of his room to speak with the medic, Pharma having little interest thanks to the earlier spark pain he had been put through. Tarn knew this and practically had to corner the aerial in order to speak with him.

"Tarn, I-"

"Quiet, Pharma. I wish to settle some things with you." Tarn purred, vocalizer causing the bot's spark to pulse faster and cause a flash of arousal, not pain.

"T-Tarn...what are you...doing?" Pharma asked through grit dentas, holding onto the medical counter so his knees wouldn't give out and send him to the floor. Primus, Tarn could use his vocalizer for more than just pain. It was both terrifying and somewhat interesting.

"I am claiming what is mine. I want you and I will have you." Tarn said firmly, grabbing Pharma and pulling him back to the private room the tank was staying in.

He got Pharma onto the berth and took the top spot, pinning Pharma's smaller frame under his with ease. The medic hissed with refusal at the idea, legs kicking feebly to either side of the tank's hips. Tarn leaned closer and nuzzled at Pharma's cheeks, purring sweetly and making the other bot quiver with longing. Lubricant started to seep from his valve and his spike felt horribly confined behind its cover.

"It looks like you enjoy my company as well! Perfect!" Tarn chuckled deeply, wishing he could take off his mask. He could, but he had never gone so in front of anyone before. He'd have to trust then more than anything to show himself.

"I do no-ooooh...frag it all! Tarn! Aaahh!" Pharma whimpered, the larger mech's hand sliding between his legs and rubbing across both heated interface arrays. He wasn't exposed yet, but he would be soon if Tarn kept up those voice tricks.

"Oh, really? Your valve and spike seem quite eager to continue." he pointed out, teasingly tracing the cover seams. "You're leaking, Pharma, you dirty thing."

"T-Tarn!" Pharma nearly shouted, trying to hold back his desires as the tank continued to tease him. It was getting harder and harder to ignore what was happening, his frame betraying his every will.

Tarn's spike was soon freed, the mech grinning behind his mask when he saw Pharma staring at it. Yes, he was impressive. His black and purple length was proportionate to his frame and sharply tipped, all signs he was healthy and good Sire material. Not that he wanted sparklings...but then again, that would truly mark Pharma as his. He would have to decide as they went along when he wanted to do.

"Impressive, yes?" Tarn chuckled, showing himself off just for fun. Pharma looked like he was about to scream at him, but then his valve cover snapped back and left himself open to be taken. There was no better green light than that one!

Tarn settled right between spread legs and gave a few experimental jerks of his hips to find the opening he was searching for. He heard a gasp and felt warmth after the fourth try, keeping Pharma fully pinned and not able to look down to see that he had made it to the warm valve slit. Rumbling happily, he pushed the first quarter of his spike between wet folds of protoflesh and into the silky depths of the medic's valve.

Pharma was panting and gasping for more, not even coherent in his pleas. He seemed like he had no idea what was going on but that he was enjoying it. Tarn didn't wish to deny him, so he eased himself further inside until he was halfway in and met a barrier of sorts. Cocking his head to one side, he looked at Pharma for an explanation.

"My s-seals...are...uuh! Still there..."

"Let me take care of those for you, Pharma." Tarn laughed, even more excited now. He truly was going to claim the medic as his own!

"Tarn, wait-"

Tarn jammed himself through the first seal, snarling as his length was met with a squeezing tightness. Virgin valves were unbelievably amazing to sink ones spike into. It was a real pleasure to take one and break them in. He gave another hard thrust and broke through the second and deepest seal right before the gestation chamber, having to really jam himself into the thrashing medic this time.

Pharma howled when his seals were forcefully taken and he was impaled by the hot, throbbing length of Tarn's. He hated Tarn more than ever now, wishing he was in better condition to fight him. The next time he got him onto an operating table for that T Cog he would make sure to disable his spike pressurizer. That way he would forever be with erectile dysfunction!

But he had to admit, despite the sharp pain, it did feel good. It was a pleasant pressure inside him and all sorts of nodes and areas deep within himself were sending shocks of pleasure all through his frame. Maybe he could find some way to mildly enjoy what was being done to him. He had no way to get out of it, so he might as well try to deal with it in any way possible.

"So tight! Unnff! I could frag you all night, but you would never last that long." Tarn chuckled, hips starting to move and really give Pharma and idea of what interfacing felt like.

Tarn was pleased to find the medic was amazingly vocal, gasping and crying as the bludgeon that was Tarn's spike fucked him good and hard. The tank was powerful and it showed in every thrust, muscle like cabling rippling under armor plates and his exvents hot against Pharma's neck. His valve was greedily clenching and trying to pull the spike deeper, wanting badly to breed with the potential Sire.

Tarn continued his same pace for a few breems before he sped up and slammed as deeply as he could, coming to an end. Pharma was great fun, but they would be leaving the next day and he needed to be alert for that. So their mating game could only last for so long. Half a cycle was good enough.

Pharma cried out each time the spike pushed into him as deep as it could, sharp tip coming so close to his gestation chamber it was worrying. If he pierced it and overloaded...there would be sparklings, no doubt about it. And how would he explain that to his assistants? "Oh, I was just taken to the berth by Tarn of the DJD and he did this," did not sound good at all.

Tarn let loose a roar of completion as he suddenly overloaded, tearing Pharma away from his thoughts. Thankfully he hadn't gone through the gel wall of the gestation chamber, but all the gallons of transfluid spurted out into his valve and the normal spike tie kept them locked together. Gasping as his valve stretched and his middle plating shifted aside to allow for extra room, Pharma stared as his middle grew a small lump from Tarn's fragging fluids.

"Ahhhh...that was nice, wasn't it, Pharma?" Tarn purred, vocalizer seeming to caress the medic's spark and calm him so he was limp and relaxed under the tank.

"N-Not at all!"

"Hush, Pharma. You need your rest." Tarn rumbled with a soft chuckle, voice bringing the medic closer to recharge by slowing his spark beat and keeping it steady. There would be no need for nervousness now, even if he did think it was cute sometimes.

"Tarn-"

"You are mine now." Tarn said, cutting him off and curling up as best he could around the bot. Pharma just felt tired instead of angry or fearful now, not able to manage a retort this time. He would remain as Tarn's while they were literally stuck together, but not after! Certainly not after...

Tarn watched the medic fall into recharge, faceplate peaceful and calm. He nuzzled him a little bit and proudly lay there for a few clicks, looking at his engorged spike stuck between valve folds. Pharma was his and he was proud of himself for taking what he wanted. Vos would not have him and now he had made quite sure of that. Pharma belonged to him.

***

"Hey, you hungry, little guy?" Helex asked, Astrotrain rather subdued ever since he had fallen off the berth. The sparkling was quiet and didn't laugh anymore, his mechanimal plush left discarded on the berth as he lay curled up in his blankets.

Astrotrain reached out to he held and clung to the larger bot when he was picked up, Helex unsure what to do. Pharma had said he was fine other than some inflamed areas and his forehead cut, so he wasn't acting this way because he was hurt. It had to be something else and he didn't know how to fix it. He sat back in his berth and leaned his head against the wall, wondering what he had to do to make things right with the little bot.

"I bet you're hungry. You've gotten pretty big without much time at all. That's a good thing. Maybe you'll get as tall as Carrier, huh?" he said, trying to speak with the little thing like Pharma had. It seemed to brighten Astrotrain's optics, so that was a good thing.

Shifting, he carefully lay down on his side and placed Astrotrain against his side so he could find the fuel line. The mechling snuffled around in his side for a few moments before he found the smooth rubber tip and latched on, getting his usual 3:30 am fuel. Helex drifted half into recharge, only stirring again when he felt Astrotrain move away from his fuel line after a few clicks of suckling.

"You feeling better?" he asked, lightly touching the mesh bandage on the mechling's forehead with the very tip of his pointer finger. Astrotrain reached up and captured his finger in two hands, trying to suck on it. He stared at Helex's faceplate with bright optics, making a soft mewl when the hand was taken away.

"Let's...not do that. How about we go to sleep, okay?" Helex offered, pulling Astrotrain into his arms and hugging him close to his chest plates. Astrotrain often got cold, so he grabbed one of the sparkling blankets with his larger pair of arms and pulled it over the little frame.

Within clicks the mechling was in recharge, limbs moving occasionally in his slumbers. Helex was glad he didn't have to worry about watching the tiny bot anymore. He was safe for now and wouldn't fall off berths if he was in recharge. Venting softly, he leaned closer and nuzzled the striking yellow crest at the top of the sparkling's helm like a true Carrier. Pharma was right about the little thing needed better care. He'd give it a try when the others weren't looking and maybe Astrotrain could grow up to be something really special.

'He'll always be special to you, softie. He's done a better job melting you than your own smelter does other bots!' he thought to himself, letting his head rest on a pillow he'd had to move thanks to his new position. Well, if he was going soft, maybe he could just...leave the DJD. Tarn was not all that interested in his abilities and no one would miss him. They pretty much hated each other as it was.

"Who knows? Maybe it'll be just you and me someday when you're older, handsome. I just have to keep you safe until then..."


	8. Chapter 8

Pharma woke up terribly sore the next morning, glowering when he sat up and sticky transfluid dribbled out of his valve from the night before. He would have to live in the wash racks after that! Tarn was a big mech and it was obvious that he would have a lot of transfluid. He was just glad it hadn't all ended up in his gestation chamber.

Venting, he closed his valve cover and stood, wincing as he walked to the door and entered the main room of med bay. There was a data pad left on one of the medical berths and he picked it up, reading the message typed into it. Tarn had left him a "parting gift" and was making it clear that he somehow owned him now. Just because he took the two seals meant little to Pharma, but if the brute was happy with himself and would leave him and the med bay well alone for a while, it was a sacrifice of his dignity he was willing to make.

'Good riddance.' Pharma thought, glad he was done with the troublesome bot and his group of vicious killers.

***

Vos had activated his ground bridge and got them all to the outskirts of Simfur, the bustling city unaware it was going to be invaded by a band of murderers looking for a single bot and a sparkling that had little clue what was happening. He just liked being carried around and didn't mind all the traveling.

"Our target has moved into the deeper part of the city towards the East side. Tesarus, I want you and Kaon to go around to the best exit and wait there. Helex and Vos, I want you both to circle around-one to each flank-and force him into the open. I will come in a more direct route and we shall run him right out of the city into Tesarus and Kaon's blockade." Tarn decided, the bots heading out to do as they needed to.

"Uh...Tarn?"

"Yes, Helex?"

"What am I going to do with Astrotrain?" he asked, Astrotrain peeping happily at his designation and trying to touch Tarn's purple facemask.

"Do they suffocate if left in a subspace?..."

"Im not trying it! You want to go in there and find out yourself?!"  
Tarn gave the bot an "I'm not impressed" look but let it go, knowing the little creation and his smelter had formed one of those bonds all his data pads and novels spoke about. It was a pity since the sparkling could at some point become a weakness, but he would let it go for now.

"Carry him. It will make things more convincing that you are merely a passerby to citizens and perhaps our prey. Now go. The others are already heading off."

Helex did as he was told and kept Astrotrain with him, the mechling absolutely enthralled by the new sounds and lights of the city. He had never been near so many Cybertronians or buildings before! There were all sorts of lights and sounds...it was truly a wonderful sight!

The smelter moved quickly through the crowds towards their pinpointed spot where their target was milling about. It seemed very odd to him that their on-the-run bot would be staying put in a city like that. Bots tended to move around even if they weren't running from anything...The large bot stopped, realizing this was all wrong.

-Tarn, it's trap! Call everyone off!- Helex shouted over their joint com link as someone blasted him in the lower back.

He let loose a bellow of pain and turned to face his attacker, only to realize that put Astrotrain in the line of fire. Instinctively he shielded the mechling for another blast, this one containing shrapnel. Probably a pellet blaster of some kind. The sparkling was shriek-crying in terror, clinging to his Almost-Carrier with a strength he had never thought such a small bot would have.

Ducking for cover behind a nearby dumpster, the smelter pried Astrotrain from his chest plates as he got ready to battle it out. Astrotrain was sobbing in fear, trying his very best to wrap himself around his Almost-Carrier for protection. He had been left once before and was not going to be abandoned again without a fight.

"You gotta let go. I have to fight them off." Helex panted, his back burning like crazy. "You need to stay quiet and don't move from here, okay? You have to listen to me more than ever now-Aaahhrrh!"

Helex was shot again in the shoulder, his plating getting blasted right off. There was more than one bot and they were trying to corner him. Astrotrain bawled at the loud sounds and his Almost-Carrier's shouts of pain, the DJD member quickly getting out the mechanimal plush for Astrotrain to hold onto. The sparkling latched into it for dear life and curled up against the house wall and the dumpster, staying put as he had been told.

The bots who were shooting at Helex had not expected him to attack with such fury. He snarled and came loping out of his cover, barreling into the closest bot and ripping both his head and one of his arms from their sockets. One down, more to go...

A truck type mech slammed into his side and bowled him over, the two grappling together as more shots were fired. One tore through his upper thigh and another just barely missed his head, the mech wincing at the proximity of that potential kill-shot.

He punched the truck bot off with his larger arms, howling when the mech retaliated and shot him point blank in the gut. One of his three energon tanks cracked and he yelped in pain, having to get up anyways and continue to fight it out. Once he got ahold of the enemy again, he crushed his neck and snapped it with one good yank to the side before he used the dead frame as a shield, hoping the bot sniping him from a building felt horrible that he was shooting the body of his dead friend.

That was when he noticed someone making a dash for the place he had left Astrotrain. Spitting with anger, the mech hurled the gray frame of the truck mech down and gave chase. He didn't have any chance of grabbing the bot before he got to the sparkling, though, his body not built for speed whatsoever. He stiffened when the bot who had been shooting him from the building snatched his mechling and held the blaster to his tiny head.

Astrotrain was screaming like he had when he had gotten his anti-virus shot, the sound one of pure fear. He didn't know what was going on and it tore at Helex, the brute of a mech growling a warning to the mech who held the sparkling.

"Put. Him. Down."

"Lay down and put your hands behind your back or he gets shot right in the face! I mean it!" the red and orange bot snarled, the symbol of the Simfur guard on his shoulder. Helex snapped his jaw shut with an audible click and slowly began to do as he was ordered. The blaster safety lever had just clicked off and he was getting ready to hear an abrupt end to the crying...

Never letting his optics leave the purple ones of the guardsmech, Helex lowered himself to the ground. The bot was obviously terrified of him and with good reason to be. He'd just gone through two guards like little more than training dummies. He was next if he made one one wrong move and he knew it.

"Astrotrain, it's okay...stop crying..." he called out, the mechling quieting only a little at his Almost-Carrier's voice.

"Awww, who knew a big ugly fragger like you would have a mechling kicking around! He makes for a great bargaining chip." the guard said, keeping a tight hold on the little bot. "Now that I have him you'll do whatever I sa-uurk!"

The guard was suddenly tackled by a lightning fast Vos, the skinny mech ripping Astrotrain from the enemy's hold and kicking him in the faceplate before he bounded towards Helex. He went right back after the mech, quickly getting hits in here or there in an attempt to tire the bot.

Helex struggled to stand, wincing at his multitude of wounds and hugging Astrotrain close to his chest plates, keeping him sheltered in the mess of battle. He watched as Vos made a deadly hit to the racing model's chest with his staff only to get shot in the hip joint. The slim mech yelped and backed away just long enough for the grounder to escape, transforming and gunning it into the city to save himself.

"Vos...thank you." Helex panted, grabbing the mechanimal plush before they made a break for the city exit themselves.

"Fffaml-lay hasss t' lok owt fffforrr fffaml-ly, eiyes?" Vos said, trying his best to speak outside of Primal Vernacular. It was hard to understand at first, but with some deciphering Helex figured it out.

"Yeah, family does have to look out for family." he agreed, helping steady Vos with a free arm as he limped towards the East gate of Simfur.

***

Tarn and the others were waiting there, all in pretty rough shape. Tesarus was sporting a nasty gash in one of his sides and was holding one of his arms, energon pooling from the shoulder joint where it had been torn out. Kaon was laying on the ground in a crooked way, signaling his spinal strut had been damaged somehow and he could not move. Tarn was hit worst of all, the tank on his side in a puddle of pink energon from a wound that had torn open his chest plates to reveal a handsome purple spark. It was pulsing, but very erratic. Considering the other damage, Helex and Vos got off easy.

"We ya be to get Tarn back to med bay. He's hurt bad. And so is Kaon. A tank type kicked him hard and I think it broke something in there." Tesarus said gruffly, the pain of his lost limb evident in his voice.

Tarn was unconscious by now and had to be manually hauled through the ground bridge Vos summoned, his energy for doing so almost gone. He managed to keep it up while Helex brought Tarn and Astrotrain through while Tesarus got Kaon in his working arm, all of them safe in med bay once again. Vos leapt through the bridge last always, panting heavily as he curled up on a medical berth and shut down some systems to save energy and help regain it faster.

"What in the name of Primus are you doing back here again?! I thought I was rid of you!" Pharma yowled from his office area, storming out to find the whole Decepticon Justice Division looking like they got badly mauled.

He went to Tarn first, checking to make sure he was alive before he made the decision to call in the other medics. First Aid would come for sure and Ambulon...he didn't think he could get him to help. The drones would need to be sent there as well to do some of the more minor repairs and just help out stabilizing the five bots. Amazingly Astrotrain was unharmed-a little dirty from being left who knows where-but not damaged like the others.

Soon First Aid and two medical drones came running into the med bay from a stationed ground bridge in the back, the drones getting to work on Vos's hip and Tesarus's ruined arm and side. First Aid approached Kaon, the mech twitching weakly as he was gently moved onto his chest plates and then sedated for the long and delicate procedure. Tarn was put under as well and hooked up to a spark stabilizer as Pharma got to work on his potentially deadly wound. So that left Helex laying untouched on a medical berth with Astrotrain held in his arms.

He snarled when he felt a hand on his upper back and tried to get up and fight, wincing and realizing it wasn't worth the effort. Huffing softly from the exertion, he looked up to see Ambulon, one of their former targets, standing in front of him with a concerned look.

"I'm not going to hurt you...you're...Helex, right?"

"Right." Helex answered, head flopping down onto the single medical berth pillow. He was so slagging tired and was getting a little dizzy from the energon loss.

"I'm going to move the sparkling out of the way and get you repaired, alright?"

"Mmmh....w-what?" Helex mumbled, hardly able to keep himself running. Now that the adrenaline was gone, so was his strength to stay online.

"Easy, mech...that's it...when you wake up you'll feel a lot better, okay?"

Helex growled weakly when he felt a sharp pinch in the seam of his lower arm, a needle getting eased into his main energon line there and energon fused with sedatives entered him. Within the click he was knocked out, head lolling to one side as he was rolled onto his chest plates for repairs. Ambulon kept the shuttle sparkling close to the DJD member, the little thing unwilling to be moved without a lot of wailing. He stayed snuggled into the softer metal of the smelter's side, sucking on his thumb and holding tightly to his mechanimal toy. So long as he was close to his Almost-Carrier, he was safe.


	9. Chapter 9

Helex woke late the next morning with a groan, feeling something warm against his side. He glanced down and saw it was Astrotrain, the little mechling...not as small as he had been the solar cycle before. The sparkling had done one of those miraculous growths that sparklings were known for, most of all the ones that were going to grow into large models.

"Frag, you're going to be big, huh?" Helex said, trying to sit up and wincing as his back erupted in burning pain. Sitting would have to wait.

"Good. Another one is up." Pharma said, not at all glad about it. Helex ignored him, feeling quite hungry. His fuel was down to thirty percent and he needed energon badly.

First Aid came scurrying over and placed three cubes on his medical cot, hurrying off again to go check on Vos. The mech was being fussy and didn't want anyone near his hurt leg, the metal staples used for stitches not something he enjoyed very much. Whining could be heard as First Aid tried to get him to behave, attempting to get some numbing cream on the wound area to help him calm down.

"Vos...Vos, you're okay. Just let him do what he needs to." Helex called out, glad when the bot actually listened and let First Aid tend to him.

Kaon was laying in a cot beside Vos on his chassis, his back in a brace so the spinal strut that had been damaged would heal properly. Tesarus was on a cot a bit farther away thanks to his large size. He needed the extra space so he limbs didn't get in the way around the others. Helex assumed this kind of arrangement applied to himself and Tarn, all three of them quite large.

Tarn's chest had been put back together, thankfully looking like he was fully repaired. But he was still in recharge or sedated, the mech's sides rising and falling as he rested. Pharma was busy at some monitors and got another bag of IV fluid for the massive tank.

Astrotrain got his full attention a moment later when then mechling pawed at his middle, his fuel line no longer offering anything since his tanks were so low. Helex grumbled about the little fragger being so pushy about it and guzzled down the three cubes he had been offered, holding Astrotrain back while his tanks processed the energon. It would only take a breem or two, but Astrotrain was fussing.

"Hey, you're lucky I'm still letting you do this. And of you grow again you'll be a youngling size and won't be able to refuel like this. You'll get a cube like normal bots." Helex said, glad their growing stages went along quick. A good two deca cycles and a bot was a youngling. It was even quicker for the larger models.

Astrotrain chirped, waving his mechanimal plush around and making it "walk" across Helex's side plating as he waited. Helex rolled his optics but allowed it, not going to do anything to bother the little thing. He had his own ideas about fun.

"Alright, you're good to go. Get some fuel and make it quick." Helex said, letting Astrotrain crawl over to his side and latch onto the fuel line the way he always did. The mechling was tugging pretty hard, but Helex let him and tried to rest some more. "Hey, how long until I'm healed?"

"Self repair systems will he working full tilt to get you better. I think in about a solar cycle or two you'll be able to sit up. But lots of movements probably won't be a good idea. It's good to take it easy to nothing rips. And the staples will be coming out tomorrow for sure." First Aid said brightly, the medic working on Tesarus who was not pleased with being touched at all. He was such a surly creature and refused to be taken care of even when he needed to be.

"Are you one of his creators?" First Aid asked after a few clicks, motioning to Astrotrain. He'd finished refueling and was trying to get Helex to play with him.

"Nah, I don't know either one of his creators. I just picked him up when they left him out in a battlefield. He was going to be a pet."

"A pet?!" First Aid gasped, looking purely horrified.

"Was?" Tesarus rumbled, catching onto that past tense word.

"He's too good to be just a pet! He'll be one of us."

"I don't think so!" Tesarus snapped, dentas clenched. "He's a pet and he was promised to all of us. Otherwise we're getting rid of him. He is not and will never be one of us."

"He will be whatever I want him to! Frag off, Tesarus!"

"Please! No fighting! We don't need that!" First Aid said weakly, putting his hands up and trying to stop the two vicious brutes from getting riled up. They really shouldn't since their wounds were so recently closed up. Any forceful movement could cause the staples to tear and reopen the thin protoflesh that was attempting to regenerate.

Pharma ignored the bots, keeping a close watch on Tarn. He'd be coming to any moment now and now wanted to be there when he got up. The tank needed to know who was the alpha mech in the room! No one would jump and frag him like that again!

There was a soft moan and bright red optics suddenly came back online, the purple and black tank waking. He stretched slightly and made a short whine when his newly repaired chest burned with a sharp pain, optics checking the room to see what was going on. Had they been captured? Were all his soldiers there with him or had they been left behind? All those questions were answered when he recognized the med bay and the bots within it, counting all of his DJD members and Astrotrain.

"You're lucky they got you here in time. You'd have bled out otherwise." Pharma said, getting a scan of the mech before he checked the area again for signs of healing. So far Tarn's self repair systems were doing what they needed to.

"It's good to be back, Pharma." Tarn purred softly, his special vocalizer seeming to caress the bot's spark and create a sense of endearment. Pharma chose to ignore it, deeming Tarn loopy from the sedatives and all sorts of medications to stop rust infection. He certainly wouldn't be able to control what his vocalizer did in such a state.

"Get some rest. I'll be moving all the others to private rooms, but you're hooked up to too many machines to be moved just yet. You'll have to wait your turn." he said, First Aid already having moved Kaon and Vos into their rooms. The heavier bots were left now and one alone could not easily wheel a mech like Helex into a room.

Tarn watched as Helex and Tesarus were taken away, leaving him alone in the main room of med bay with the soft beeps of machines. One was his spark pulse rate and another his venting cadence, not to mention the IV drip that contained all sorts of needed medicines and energon. In all honesty his arm hurt from the needles and the constant presence of liquid being eased into his main energon line.

"You're in some big trouble for fragging me last solar cycle." Pharma said, sitting down in a chair he pulled up beside the medical cot. Tarn growled but did not answer. "I want to know why you did what you did. Why me and not one of your own bots?"

"Because I have already claimed them and I wanted you more. When I want something, I take it."

Pharma thought about that for a moment, seeing how Tarn was telling him the truth. The bot was so complex in some ways and so simple in others. Venting quietly, he leaned back in the chair and folded his arms across his chassis.

"Well, you made me a disgusting mess to clean up the next morning, so don't do it again."

Tarn growled softly and watched the medic, optics somewhat curious. Pharma seemed like he didn't really mind. If he was in such trouble, why wasn't he getting really yelled at? Or better yet, punished? These Autobots didn't make any sense to him.

"And you know I just have to repay the little claiming you did. After all, if you really want me so badly, you'll want all of me, yes?"

That got Tarn's attention, the mech staring wide optic-ed at the medic now.

There was no one in the room to yell out to and he was trapped thanks to his wound and the monitors hooked up to his frame. Pharma would have no better chance to frag him than now. He growled softly, shifting as best he could as Pharma clambered nimbly onto the berth with him and settled between his legs.

"No." he snarled, vocalizer trying to get to the bot. Pharma shrugged his shoulders and tapped his audio receptor to say "I can't hear you," and straddled the mech with a smirk. Tarn was panicking now, unable to do much of anything since his power could not be used. Pharma had disconnected every audio system he had, something he needed bots to have on in order for his ability to work. It had to be converted there and then sent to the processor in order to control the spark.

Pharma easily got his hardly used valve cover to slide aside and grinned, his proud white and red spike freeing itself from its housing. Time for some pay back! Tarn was whining, but he couldn't hear as he got himself positioned for the best penetration angle. Tarn would be tight since he probably hadn't let anyone into him for thousands of vorns. He just wasn't the type.

Pharma turned on his audio receptors again and groaned as his spike eased in between somewhat dry valve folds, Tarn not lubricating as he could be. It was a little concerning and Pharma only got halfway before Tarn started to really fuss, whimpering and hissing as he tried to get Pharma out.

"Tarn...what have you been hiding all this time, hmm?" Pharma asked, but it was not teasing. He pulled his spike out and abandoned it for now, not putting it back but getting in between Tarn's legs and pulling his valve further open to get a look at what was wrong.

The big tank mech had a rust infection that had obviously never been taken care of properly. He'd left it alone out of pride and suffered with it for Primus knows how long. The mech vented and quickly cleaned his spike off with Coro-Stop just in case it had gotten to him already. He certainly did not want a spike with rust on it.

"Back off." Tarn growled, but his vocalizer was not working for him now. Pharma could hear his nervous the mech was and rubbed his middle in a somewhat affectionate way.

"I can fix it. Just let me work."

Pharma got out a blunt syringe and filled it with the strain of Coro-Stop that would put an end to the infection with one good dose. He winced when Tarn yelp-growled at it being inserted, knowing the whole thing must have been hurting him. But this would make him feel better in the end.

He pushed the plunger and the liquid shot into the depths of Tarn's valve, the mech bucking subconsciously as his breeding protocols kicked in. His frame surely thought it was transfluid and was checking to see if his gestation chamber was breeched. It wasn't even close to being touched, so the medicine got to work clearing out the rust. Pharma had to smile when he saw Tarn physically relax, pain he'd never thought he'd get rid of gone relatively quickly.

"You don't have to be scared of asking for help. I'm a doctor and all that we do is strictly confidential." he assured, Tarn seeming to further relax.

"I was doing just fine."

"Tarn, stop with that slag. I know it was bothering you." Pharma said with a stern look, somehow having forgiven the brute of a creature. He was hardly evil all the way through. Megatron might be, but Tarn and his odd group were not fully demonized by the silver tyrant. They'd been made into his favored attack mechanimals, but they were not wholly terrible at spark. One had taken in a mechling and now Tarn was trying to court him in his own twisted way.

It hadn't taken Pharma long to figure out something had made Tarn want to frag him more than just on whim alone. He'd just have gone to one of the others where there would have been no fight at all and probably more fun. This had been more meaningful to the tank since it was someone outside of his group. That had been the first clue. But the biggest one of all was that Pharma had recalled how possessive the mech had become of him. He'd remembered signs from vorns earlier, but the incident with Vos and getting jealous had been the major tip off as well as how he'd curled up tight with him right after overload. Had he wanted a quick fuck, he'd not have bothered with all the more intimate steps.

"If you liked me this much for so long, you could have gone about it as a normal mech would have, you know. I do enjoy those energon candies. A nice tin of those would have gotten you more points than a forced interface." Pharma said, a lopsided grin on his faceplate that was a mix between a true smile and a smirk.

Tarn stiffened and looked the other way with embarrassment.

"Seriously, I like treats. Now get some rest, you big idiot." Pharma said, shutting off most of the lights and leaving dim ones on in case there was an emergency.

'Energon candies...' Tarn mused, already figuring out where he could purchase them from.


	10. Chapter 10

A few more solar cycles passed as the members of the DJD recovered in med bay. For the most part things were uneventful, save for the fact Astrotrain did yet another growth spurt when no one was looking and was now a small youmgling. It looked like the time of caring for a sparkling might have come to an end. Helex was now able to sit up fully and was due to have the staples out that solar cycle, not looking forward to it but keeping himself busy with his youngling.

"You need to learn how to talk. The programs will be coming up soon and you'll need to get a head start. Okay, repeat after me. "He-lex."

Astrotrain was sitting on his lap, playing with a model car. He squeaked when he was told to do something and opened his mouth, unsure what sounds to make.

"He-lex." Helex repeated again, pointing to himself so there was association to a thing he knew very well.

"Heeeee-l-lex." Astrotrain tried, the smelter somewhat intrigued now. His vocalizer was much different than most. It held many tones in one pitch, if that mate sense at all. It was refreshing and interesting to listen to.

'I made a good choice in mechling to pick up.' Helex thought silently, smiling a little when he heard his designation butchered. It was kinda cute....kinda.

"He-lex." he tried again, gently touching the yellow crest that was more prominent on Astrotrain's helm now. The youngling squeaked and captured his hand in his, staring up at the other bot.

"Helex!" he suddenly squealed, pouncing on his Almost-Carrier and hugging him tightly. Helex rumbled softly and rested his chin on the youngling's helm in a tender way.

"That's right, Astrotrain. You're doing great. Now we have to get you learning all the other bots names here. They're all part of our "lovely" little family." Helex said with a partly sarcastic tone, glad Kaon was nearby to be used as the next practice word. Astrotrain was paying attention to everything Helex said now, bright optics staring at his lips when they moved, even trying to mimic the motions for practice.

To Helex it all seemed unreal. Tarn had calmed considerably as he recovered and was even looking like he enjoyed Pharma's company. It made the smelter grin at the idea of the bratty medic trying to deal with overprotective and somewhat strange Tarn. But they might make a good pair in the end. Who was he to say they wouldn't?

Despite all these good thing, in the back of his mind he watched and waited for the next trouble to find them. It would come eventually and he wanted to be ready when it found them. He would not be caught unawares.

***

The DJD spent another deca cycle in the med bay with Pharma, fully healed from their wounds and now able to move around and do as they liked. Tarn had given the order for them to track their prey again and they had moved out soon after. Pharma had watched them go with a sad smile, optics showing how much he worried about their return. He didn't want to see them so damaged again, most of all Tarn.

'Energon candies really did win me over. I think I'm crazy.' Pharma decided, shaking his head a little at the idea. At least Tarn had figured out fragging without a "yes" from both sides was not okay, so they were slowly making progress.

His valve ached at the mere idea of Tarn, his frame having decided his first partner was one to keep. Just because his body said Tarn was healthy and would create good sparklings, they were not primal anymore. He couldn't go off that as an indicator of their relationship being successful. Snorting at the idea of all the insanity he had willingly walked into by allow the DJD into his life, he returned to cleaning his med bay.

***

It had been two solar cycles away from med bay and Helex was not happy about it. They were stuck camping again and he had to keep a better optic on Astrotrain since the mech was now starting to walk. He was slowly figuring it out, but once he got the hang of it he could more easily wander off.

"Noooo!" Astrotrain wailed when Helex tried to shake his hand off, the mechling clinging to his fingers for support as little gray and purple legs wobbled at the knees. "Heeeeeelex!" he sobbed, clinging to him more when the bot tried to pull away.

"Let me go, you little scrap. Just do it and walk!" Helex snapped, still not a great creator type. He was a little rough, but he had been trained into being that way thanks to his job and Megatron.

Helex yanked his hand away and Astrotrain started crying, standing there and unwilling to take a step for fear he'd fall over. He'd done a lot of falling while learning to walk. He reached out for Helex again and tried to grab ahold of him but couldn't reach, whining softly.

"You have to walk. Come on, Astro. Use those legs." Helex drawled, not expecting the mechling to do it as he lay back against some pillows he'd brought from med bay.

Astrotrain waited a few moments before he tried, taking a nervous step and nearly stumbling over with the first movement. He flailed his arms and made another cry for Helex to pick him up.

"Nuh-uh, you walk over here and then I'll give you a hug. Until you walk over, I'm staying right here."

Astrotrain frowned and lurched forward, tiny processor deciding he could go really fast and hope he fell on his Almost-Carrier. Walking was bad, so he'd just go for it and see what happened. He forced his legs to go and he went in a dead sprint towards Helex, tripping on his own pedes at the end and flinging himself at Helex's frame.

Helex grunted loudly when his gut got slammed into by the mechling, some of the air getting knocked out of him. But Astrotrain had walked...flailed...ran...whatever. At least he tried and it warranted a hug. He picked the mechling off his middle plating and hugged him ins his smaller set of arms, kissing the top of his helm.

"Nice job, buddy." he said softly, gently touching the much more prominent shuttle wings growing from his back plating. They were interesting to him, always having found aerials to be more attractive. It was a typical grounder fantasy to have a flier fall in love with them since wings were a huge bonus and far more exciting than treads or tires.

Astrotrain laughed, all signs he had been fussing a few moments before gone. He had done a good job and he loved getting the praise. Clinging to Helex, he made sure the other bot didn't let him go again. For the start of a large mech, the bot wasn't really a tough guy. Sparklings tended to show the beginnings of personality by the first youngling stage, so it was already evident he wouldn't be highly aggressive like some bots. Whatever litter he had been born from might be the same, the traits of the Sire and Carrier often coming through in their young.

"I wonder who you take most after..." Helex murmured, looking over the mechling and speculating about it all. "I don't know if I'd ever want to meet the fraggers. They dumped you out on a battlefield to die, but then again it made me a chance to find you. Things work in weird ways, huh?"

Astrotrain was half in recharge, optics dulling down until they finally turned off and he snuggled against the warm chest and middle plating he was held to. Helex rubbed between the shuttle wings and was glad when Astrotrain fell into recharge against him, head lolling to one side.

Helex gently set him down in some blankets and made sure his favorite mechanimal plush was with him. After that was done, the smelter slipped out of the tent and headed outside to sit and discuss what they would do next. Vos was too tired to conjure ground bridges for all their traveling, so they had to walk for the most part.

"We on the same plan as we were before at med bay?" Helex asked, wanting to check in and leave. He had recharging to do.

"Yes, Helex. And once we have found them, we will be returning to Delphi."

"What for?"

Tarn didn't bother to answer him, having his own reasons for returning to Delphi that all had to do with a certain grouchy medic...

"Tarn's got the hots for Pharma." Tesarus snorted, a wide grin on his faceplate as he leaned back against a rock. "Big bot's going soft on us!"

"Whatever. I know you have a bot waiting for you back in Kaon. What's his designation again? Riptide?" Helex asked, also grinning as Tesarus's expression changed from smug to shocked.

"How'd you find out about that?!"

"I was the one who introduced both of you, stupid. You're welcome." Helex said with a cocky smile, standing back up to head to the tent where he had left Astrotrain,

Tesarus was speechless, now getting interviewed about his supposed love interest back in Kaon. Spluttering and stammering, he had to retreat to his own tent to avoid further questioning. Helex was glad he would get a little slag for that, gossip always good for when they were on the road.

***

It took them four more solar cycles until they caught their once elusive prey. The bot was a tough one, not screaming or pleading the way they normally liked them. So their playing didn't last long with him, eventually dragging the small sedan type to Tesarus for the finishing event.

Tesarus's middle whirred to life, sharp blades now a cyclone of agony soon to come. The traitor wasn't struggling, just hanging in Tesarus's hands as he was pushed towards the maw of spinning blades. He did cry out when his pedes were torn apart and his legs ripped to shreds, but once it reached his torso and tore through his lower frame, he hushed and his body faded of color. Tesarus's blades had ruptured necessary internal components and he could not survive without them functioning.

"We chased him all around for this? It was so...boring." Tesarus grumbled, shoving the last of the bot through so only energon and churned up gore were left behind. "Who's next on the List?"

"We must first report to Megatron about our success." Tarn rumbled, sending their Lord a com link frequency.

-Excellent, Tarn! Have Vos transport you all here to my headquarters for rewards- Megatron purred, his voice oddly sweet. -And there are other things we need to discuss with one another-

-Of course, my Liege. We will be there soon-

Tarn cut off the link and ordered his bots to be on their best behavior in front of Megatron. Vos created the bridge for them and they leapt through, Helex hanging behind for a few clicks. Astrotrain held his hand, now able to toddle along on wobbly legs. He glanced down at the little mechling and hoped Megatron did not care if he had become part of the team.


	11. Chapter 11

Helex stepped through the ground bridge with Astrotrain at his side, the youngling now over average size. He would go through one more growth spurt and it would be a big leap for him. He would be a young adolescent then and gain a huge deal of intelligence and word functions. Right then he was still speaking in relatively basic terms, but after a few more solar cycles he would really grow up.

Vos had sent them to the main room of Megatron's headquarters where the warlord preferred to sit on his throne and look down on the bots who came to see him. Helex glanced up and saw the silver mech was doing his usual display, Starscream standing at his side with an annoyed look on his perpetually sneering faceplate.

"My loyal Justice Division! How goes your hunting?" Megatron asked with a grin, motioning Tarn to come forward with the other members fanning out behind.

"The bot has been dealt with, my Lord. Would you like to see a memory file of his tortures?"

"No, no. I need no memory file to know you have done a fine job. I summoned you here so we may speak about some minor concerns I am having lately."

"Of course, my Liege." Tarn said, bowing his head.

"Oh, and who is this little one you have brought me, Helex?" Megatron asked, spotting Astrotrain standing close to Helex's side. The smelter stiffened slightly but urged Astrotrain to take a few steps forward.

"This is Astrotrain, my Lord. I took him as a toy for the team. Once he grows up, he will be our little pleasure-bot."

"Aaahh, I see! He looks to be of rare breed. Is he a triple changer, by some chance?"

"I believe so, my Liege. He has not transformed yet, but we see shuttle wings as well as wheels on his shoulders."

"Excellent! Thank you for your generous contribution to the Decepticon cause! I will be keeping him here with me. Triple changers are soldiers, Helex, not pleasure slaves." Megatron said with a chuckle, letting Astrotrain stay with the smelter for a while longer as he addressed some other matters.

Helex felt his tank sink at the idea Megatron was going to take away Astrotrain. He was a loyal soldier, but this was going too far. Astrotrain was his. He had saved him and he had grown attached as well, something that was foolish but unavoidable. There was no way he was going to give up Astrotrain without a fight. It was shocking to think he would take on Megatron himself for the youngling, but it was true.

"What else did you wish to discuss with us, my Lord?" Tarn asked, hoping that there would be news of a new traitor that they could track. The List was pretty much empty since they had done good work so far.

Megatron raised his hand into the air and motioned from behind his throne, some of his biggest and strongest soldiers coming out pushing bots in front of them, their wrists cuffed behind their backs. They stumbled and struggled, but the attempts to break free were ceased when knives were pressed up to their main energon lines in their necks.

Helex's spark tightened with horror and his optics went wide when he saw Pharma, Riptide, and two smaller bots he didn't recognize. But he could see they were the interests of Kaon and Vos by the way the two bots took a few steps closer to aid them, all the captured mechs looking absolutely terrified.

"And who are these?" Tarn asked, keeping his tone even and pretending he didn't know the bots at all.

"Oh, I think you know, Tarn. I have heard rumors you and your little group have taken some love interests. That is NOT allowed within the Decepticon ranks as you well know. What has gotten into you to feel any attachment to an Autobot medic?" Megatron asked, motioning to Pharma. He was glaring viciously back, but could to little with a knife pressed to his neck.

Tarn was quiet, not sure what to say right away. Megatron was surely trying to make an example with the bots and it was sickening to think he might betray his own master to save Pharma. It was truly amazing what love could do to a bot who had once thought their spark was cold.

"I will make sure you know better. Each of them will die and you each will be the ones to kill them. I will not allow my most favored soldiers to be such fools!" Megatron snarled, a large tank holding Riptide, a blue and black truck model stepping forward towards Tesarus.

"Tes...Tesarus, help me! Don't let them...please!" Riptide sobbed, terrified about what was to come. He wished he could reach for his partner, but his hands were cuffed and he had no hope of tearing them away.

"Shhh...Riptide, it's fine." Tesarus whispered, taking the knife offered by the unnamed tank mech holding his mate captive.  
"You're next, Tarn." Megatron laughed softly, looking over with a dark grin at Pharma.

While Tesarus was trying to buy some time, Helex had started planning as he was sure the others were. There had to be a way to make them drop the bots! Growling softly to himself he noticed there were some energon cubes meant for the warlord stacked behind the three other bots holding the prisoners. Their backs were to the energon and he had a good feeling if he played things right he could make it work. For once he sent a prayer to Primus (if he was even listening), asking for this to work in order to save them.

"Astrotrain, I want you to go to Megatron, okay? And when you get there, I need you to do something very important." Helex said softly, pretending he didn't care a bit about his companions and their plight. It brought a smile to Megatron's faceplate, the mech leaning back in his throne.

"Noooo...I wanna stay here." Astrotrain whimpered, holding the mech's hand. Helex hated to have to shake his affection away, holding his shoulder instead.

"Astrotrain, I need you to go and talk to Lord Megatron. Tell him what you want to do when you're older." Helex urged, needing the silver warlord to be distracted enough for them to make their move. He knew Tesarus was ready to gut the bot holding his companion, so when he got a chance he would fight.

Astrotrain toddled over to Megatron, the bot looking down at him with a smile. Astrotrain stood there, looking back at Helex who motioned him forward.

"I wanna fight when I'm owder." he said, reaching up to get a hug or be held. Megatron grinned, so glad to see the triple changer up close.

"You will make a fine warrior, little one. Just give it all time. First you must grow."

Helex made his move. He grabbed Vos's sniper rifle right off his back and fired at the energon cubes. The explosion was loud and intense, the blast hitting the bots holding their partners right in the backs. They released and Vos was instantly on the ground bridge creation, Pharma leading the other two mechs through it right away. Kaon went next while Tesarus and Tarn took out the bot holding Riptide.

Helex paid them no mind, running into the burning blue energon to get Astrotrain back. He found the youngling on the floor crying, scooping him up and snarling when he felt a hand grab his neck and yank viciously. He swung one of his larger arms around and heard a growl when he hit the bot that held him, sure that it was Megatron even before he heard his voice.

"You think you are so clever? You cannot escape me, Helex. None of you can! I will find other hunters! You and the rest will become the new List!"

"You will find no other bots like us, Megatron. Good riddance to you!" Helex spat as he kicked Megatron off and made a run for it.

Helex bolted into the space bridge after Tarn, Tesarus and Riptide already gone. He waved for Vos to follow after he went through, the mech releasing his hold on the bridge and leaping through before it closed. For now they were free.

***

The bots had been transported to the outskirts of Iacon's forest, the walk to the city sure to be a long one. And once they got there, they would not be welcomed whatsoever. But they needed somewhere to stay that was safe.

"Tesarus! Thank Primus you came!" Riptide was sobbing, the red and black mech clinging to his mate as they curled up together on the ground.

"I'm sorry I left you...Oh, Primus, I'm just glad you're okay!"

It was shocking to hear such a "weak" emotion from the grinder, Tesarus usually one of the most aloof and grouchy of the group. But it was obvious he was in love and that trumped his other moods in an instant.

Pharma was checking Tarn over for damage while Kaon silently hugged a small yellow and orange bot to his chassis. Vos was chattering in Primal Vernacular to a green and black mech, the two looking perfect for one another thanks to similar frame types. They were all happy to be safe and together as they should, no longer forced to be kept apart.

"And I have you." Helex murmured, Astrotrain having ceased his wailing when he realized he was back in familiar arms and with a bot who would take cared of him.

"Helex..." Astrotrain whimpered, snuggling against him as the big bot leaned back against a cyber tree trunk.

"Shhh...rest. We have a long way to walk to Iacon, little one." he rumbled, kissing the youngling on his helm and shutting off his optics for the time being. They needed to make it to the city before nightfall.


	12. Chapter 12

"We cannot go into Iacon. That would be handing ourselves over to the Autobots." Tarn growled, deciding that it was not a good idea to even approach the city. They had to find somewhere they would be left alone and not easily tracked by Megatron. While he had bigger things to deal with, they had bested him once and he would not allow them to continue living if he could help it.

"Well, where do you think we can go, huh? There aren't exactly a lot of choices!" Tesarus growled, Riptide staying close to him.

"We must find a neutral area. Perhaps Ankmore Park will be far enough out of the way for us to at least regroup and decide what further actions we must make to keep us safe." Tarn said evenly, his vocalizer punishing Tesarus a little for his challenging tone. The grinder hissed and backed down, nuzzling Riptide instead of fighting with his leader.

"Sounds good to me. Whatever is safe." Helex rumbled, holding Astrotrain's hand. The youngling was staying right by his side, not wanting to be separated again.

"It's the best option we have. We might as well take it." Kaon said, patting his turbo-fox Sparkeater on his head. The small beast nipped at his master's hand for more attention, sharp dentas thankfully not drawing any energon.

Vos summoned enough energy to get the ground bridge back up and send them to Ankmore Park as Tarn had announced, all the bots running through and finding themselves a few miles down the main road entering the neutral city state. Before they moved on, Tarn made sure all their Decepticon brands were painted over, thankfully carrying some different color paints in his vast subspace.

"After you may have better paint jobs done. But for now we must hide our identities."

~What about your face mask, Tarn?~ Vos asked, head cocked to the side. His mate tilted his head the other way since he understood the question, the two of them quite a cute pair.

"I...must take it off."

Pharma glanced over when he heard that, never having seen Tarn's real faceplate behind his mask. The tank hesitated for a few clicks before he finally undid the latches holding the Decepticon symbol mask in place. He took it off gently and placed it in his subspace, unwilling to break it despite the lack of affiliation with the faction now.

"Holy slag, look at him!" Tesarus yelped, staring in shock at the mech. "You look....you look good!"

Tarn growled softly, lips curling back and showing his dentas. For a slightly scarred faceplate, he was a handsome thing. His helm was rounded with backward facing plates, giving hims a sleek appearance without the sharp angles of the mask. For the most part and did not sport the typical helmet-type of their kind.

"Of course I look fine." Tarn growled, turning his back on the group and heading towards their new destination and hopefully home.

The group followed him after their Decepticon brands were covered over, plodding along behind their leader. It would be a long ways for them to walk, but they had to look like refugees from the war. They fit the part well thanks to their current situation.

"Helex?" Astrotrain asked, tugging the hand he held to get attention. The massive bot looked down at him with a small smile.

"Yes, Astrotrain?"

"I'm ouchie." he complained, pointing to his pedes. Helex raised an eyebrow at his admittedly cute way of saying it hurt to walk and swiftly picked the youngling up into his arms. He hadn't remembered the bot was an aerial type as well as some form of grounder. Fliers, be they Seeker or shuttle type, did not do well walking for long periods of time. They just weren't built for it.

Astrotrain made a soft mumble into Helex's chest plates and clung to him, still stressed from the events of the strange solar cycle. He still had images of the mean silver bot in the chair and felt all the tension in that room, little ones often picking up and remembering things like that better than their elders.

"He's cute. Who'd you have him with?" Riptide asked, walking nearby with Tesarus and spotting the spark warming scene. Helex shook his head.

"He's adopted. Found him in a battlefield after someone dumped him out and he's mine now. I'm keeping him."

Riptide smirked a little at that, seeing some resemblance between the stubborn and rather simple smelter with his own mate. They were highly possessive of what they thought was "theirs." Well, at least the youngling was safe from harm and cared for by such a powerful and watchful mech.

"I'm happy for you! What's your designation?" Riptide asked, the royal blue and black mech coming closer to get a good look at Astrotrain. The youngling hugged tighter around Helex's neck and whimpered.

"You can tell him. We're all friends here."

"Astwotwain..." the mechling said, faceplate buried into his Almost-Carrier's chest plates.

"We're still working on his "R's." Helex explained, patting Astrotrain on his back. Riptide grinned and made sure to tell the youngling he was happy to meet him.

"Tes, we should try for some sparklings..."

"You're whacked if you think I'll go for that." Tesarus growled back, Riptide giving him a sad look.

"Come on! We're free of the Decepticons now! We can have a family! We can have a real life like everyone else."

"A life where we might have to run or fight at any moment? It is hardly an ideal time to raise anything. Cybertron is at war." the grinder answered, shaking his head. He would not agree to such a thing until the war was said and done with. Riptide's shoulders sunk, but he was a determined kind of bot. He would find a way to bring some tiny new Cybertronians to life.

***

Tarn was a good haggler and managed to purchase them all a building with furnishings. It was good to be a highly paid leader and have a huge sum of credits saved up. Waving the other bots inside once things were signed, the group piled inside and took rooms. It was a good feeling to be off the streets and away from any prying optics, every single one of them feeling lucky to be alive and safe-at least for the time being. They all knew things would never last.

"He has a war to fight. Why would he want to come after all of you?" Pharma asked, taking out some of his possessions from his subspace and putting them out in the room.

"Because we beat him, Pharma. We escaped Megatron and no one is allowed to do such a thing and survive for long."

"We'll make it just fine." Pharma snorted, waving off his concern. The medic could fix any one of them and they could all fight. It was going to be okay.

'Besides, if we don't hope we certainly won't make it too long.' he thought, sitting down on the berth and watching Tarn pace around a few times. The tank checked the window of the room twice and was heading back for a third time when Pharma snapped him out of it.

"Tarn, come over here."

Surprisingly the mech plodded over, looking very tired now that one could fully see his faceplate and the expressions on it. The mask had hidden so much of him away. Purring softly when he sat down, the medic took his potential mate's head in his hands and traced a thumb over one of the biggest and deepest scar marks.

"Do you want me to fix this?"

"It would not be me without it. We need to remember some things. Covering them over will not do us any good." Tarn answered, pulling his his head away so he couldn't be touched anymore.

"I get it, I get it. Calm down, Tarn. You're too on edge to be healthy."

"If I am not we could all die."

"Still. Live while it's worth doing. If we die, we die. That's the end of it." Pharma said simply, shrugging it off. "We'll not have to suffer here anymore, right?"

"I suppose so." Tarn grumbled, the big tank nothing like he had been before as a lead Decepticon hunter. He was now sprawled out on the berth beside an Autobot with complete ease. For a murderer he really did have a side to him that wasn't all evil.

'There is always some good in evil, after all. All those crazy bots prove it. Besides, they were just regular mechs before Megatron stole them away and created his desired hunting party.'

Pharma sat there and started to pet along Tarn's side absentmindedly, getting a content sounding rumble in reply. Pharma made a quiet gasp-moan when his spark was caressed by the sound, Tarn's vocalizer not made entirely for the creation of agony. With a slight smirk, the medic draped himself on top of the tank and ground his hips across the other's spike cover.

"Let's forget this solar cycle." he whispered, getting another spark-fluttering growl in return. Tarn was quite okay with forgetting.

***

Riptide rolled over and bit down on Tesarus's neck, the two wrestling in their new berth. It felt amazing to be back together as they should and no longer be threatened by the looming presence of Megatron. Their affection for one another and the bond they shared no longer had to be hidden and it was a truly wonderful feeling of liberation.

"Love you...love you so much." Riptide moaned into Tesarus's neck after the bite, letting himself be handled and tucked under the larger bot.

"Love you, too. Feels so fragging weird to say it, but it's true. We're free at last, buddy." Tesarus answered, a smile spreading across his faceplate. For Riptide it was not that rare, but it would have shocked the others to see a normally aloof and snarky mech to be so at ease and cheerful.

"Can we please try for some sparklings? Come on...just do it for me!"

Tesarus knew he wouldn't be able to say "no" for very long, so he might as well go for it while they would have some time to raise the little things in peace. He just didn't want to imagine how horrible it would be to worry about mechlings if they had Megatron right on their afts trying to kill them. But they would fight like demons to keep them safe. It...it could work. And he wasn't all that opposed, having been around Astrotrain enough thanks to Helex to understand what happened for the most part.

"We can try."

Riptide hugged Tesarus tighter than ever and let his valve cover slide back, glad to hear the familiar click of Tesarus's spike cover as well. This was how it was supposed to be. They were meant to be close and love one another. Their long time separation had strained their spark bond, the marbled energies containing some of each mech's life essence straining to keep them as close as possible. But now there was no more worry of such things.

Riptide held tightly to Tesarus's upper chest and spread his legs for him, feeling the sharp tip of the mech's tan and soft orange spike tease between the protoflesh folds. Tesarus mouthed at him softly before capturing him in a deep kiss, hips pushing forward so he slowly sank into the hot, velvet depths of his companion and soulmate.

The two were big models, types known for short frags. It was powerful, but not long. No truck, tank, or other large type was made for endurance, after all.

Tesarus grunted loudly as he slammed his hips into Riptide, clawing at the berth as he tried to sink his spike deeper inside. Riptide was howling and gasping with pleasuring, squeezing his mate's shoulders as the dominant in the pair did his job. They occasionally stole a kiss or two from one another, but they mostly needed their vents to be fully open. Fragging made systems heat up and they had to cool off and help the fans that whirred on.

"I'm going to fill you so full of transfluid you'll have the biggest litter there ever was." Tesarus growled, biting down on Riptide's collar armor and getting a cry of pained pleasure in return.

"Tesarus! Ahh! Mmmfff...I want it, please! Nnnggh, harder!"

Tesarus gave a few very powerful thrusts before he forced his spike as deep as it would go and felt the strange sensation of the sharp tip piercing through the slippery gel wall of the gestation chamber. He released with a barking shout, his spike creating a bulge at the base that tied them firmly together as transfluid shot from the tip.

Riptide jerked and made a short yelp when the chamber was breeched, new programming information coming up behind his optics. Carriers needed it, so he accepted all that needed permission and let nature take its course. Tesarus was huffing loudly as he finished overload, thrusting slightly a few more times before he slumped over exhausted beside his mate. He didn't care that his spike was being pulled a little uncomfortably to the side, too tired to give it much thought.

No words were said after that, both hoping for little ones soon. The gestation process wasn't too long and they would knew within a deca cycle whether Riptide was going to be a Carrier or not. If not...it would be a bad sign. If a bot didn't take right away when they were trying for a first time it would be a sign they were not capable of reproducing at all.

'All we can do is hope. We're been doing a slagging lot of that lately.' Tesarus thought with a vent, turning off his optics and letting himself fade into recharge beside his bonded.

***

Helex sat in the berth, Astrotrain sitting beside him. They were working on his speech, the mechling starting to grasp the "R" sound at last. Helex could tell he wasn't from the brightest stock, but that was okay. He was still his and he'd come out just fine.

"Helex...I'm...Ast..rrrrr...otrrrain! Astrrrrotrrrain!" Astrotrain squealed happily, clapping dark gray hands together with excitement.

"That's right! Good job! Now you can tell everyone your designation the way it was meant to sound!" Helex snickered, hugging the bot and laying down in the soft berth with a huff.

"Helex, tell me a story." Astrotrain whispered, the smelter having done that for him a few lunar cycles and now it had become a constant question. He liked stories and he liked to hear his Almost-Carrier talk.

"It's late, Astrotrain. Maybe tomorrow-"

"Nooooooooo! Story!" he whimpered, looking pitiful until Helex gave in and started a made up tale for him. They had been following "Axel," an imaginary gladiator who fought all sorts of monsters and beasts as well as made friends. It was ridiculous, but Astrotrain sucked up any kind of story even if it was terrible.

"Alright, where were we? Was Axel fighting the Quintessons?"

"Yes!" Astrotrain squeaked, snuggling in and turning a pair of very bright scarlet optics to vermillion ones.

"Axel had just spun and avoided being grabbed by a Quintesson, narrowing escaping and rushing as fast as he could run to a nearby cave for safety. With his sword drawn, he formed a new plan and decided he would spring a trap..."


	13. Chapter 13

For Helex it was almost hard to believe when Astrotrain really grew. The youngling was suddenly an adolescent and then he was a huge adult within the next few deca cycles, proform growth going like crazy. He got to be taller than his former caretaker, voice taking on a stronger multi-tonal sound. They had speculated it was a youngling thing, but it was not at all.

He didn't really consider Helex to be his creator figure, either. The whole time he had been little, his programming had told him it was not the right bot who Carried him and that it was a temporary thing until he was big enough to fend for himself. And now that he was big, he saw Helex in a whole different way.

"Guess who?" he rumbled when he returned from the town on an energon run for the group. He was a transport triple changer, composed of a shuttle and train alt mode. Astrotrain beamed as he held his hands over Helex's optics.

"You're an idiot, I can tell who you are with your voice." Helex snorted lovingly, leaning back against the mech as he informally crossed his legs in the chair. "What do you want, Astro?"

"I wanted to tell you there are pictures of us going around on the Decepticon database. Bots will come looking. There's a reward for each bot captured, too."

Now that Astrotrain was fully grown and matured, he had been told about their situation and everything that had happened from the very beginning. He even knew Helex had wanted him as a mech pet, which he honestly didn't mind at all. They were together anyways so really it didn't matter to the triple changer what they called it. He was having fun and so was the other bot.

"They have us on the database?! Frag! Do you think they know we're here?! We have to warn Tarn and the others..."

"They know already. Announced it when I came in."

Helex relaxed slightly, glad Tarn was already dealing with it. He'd had more than enough stress, but he was their leader. It was his duty to handle such things.

"Do you think anyone will notice us here?" Astrotrain asked, sounding worried but not scared. He was too big to fear such things right then. After his growth spurt he had really gotten more self assured. Not much, but enough that he felt like he could keep himself safe.

"Anything is possible. Since they offered a reward, bots will look harder." Helex growled, rising from his seat and heading out to the main room with Astrotrain following behind him.

Tarn was sitting with Pharma and Kaon out in the living room. Kaon's mate was taking a nap and the others were doing whatever else they had planned in the privacy of their rooms. Right then only the ones Astrotrain had warned knew of what had happened.

"I'll have fun the next time I meet up with Megatron. His spark will regret the solar cycle he tried to harm us." Tarn hissed, hastily working on some data pads to pull up the database and check to see how their images looked. It was close enough so bots would likely spot them if they walked around too much.

"This is unfortunate..." Pharma muttered, optics narrowed as he studied their pictures on the screen. They were in trouble.

"We need to leave. We must find a place no others will follow us to. A city is not the right place." Tarn said, processor coming up with the best option he could think of. They would have to find a place to call home out in Cybertron's biggest cyber forest bordering Vos and Iacon. It spanned almost a quarter of their planet and it would provide them with shelter and energon in plentiful amounts.

"We must move quickly and gather as many supplies as we can. I want everyone's subspace full!" Tarn declared, realizing they would have to go out into the city and buy a great deal of things. Credits would do them no good anymore, so there was no need to save them.

"You can't go out there. Only ones they don't have images of can." Pharma said firmly, sensing that his mate was trying to go out and get the items. Astrotrain was already heading out with Kaon's quiet mate, both mechs going to acquire energon cubes, filters, and other supplements.

"None of my soldiers can go out. But all their mates can. Pharma, you are in charge of the medical supplies. I have ample credits if you need them. We will need to either make the things we need or have the tools with us already. You decide what is needed most."

"I would like to be transported back to my med bay with Astrotrain. He can carry far more than I can and the larger machines are the ones that will be needed to produce medical energon and other needed medicine."

"When he returns you may go. I will go wake the others and tell them what is going on. My soldiers can gather whatever we can in the house and bring possessions with us. We leave behind anything we can't carry in one trip."

"Aye, aye, Captain." Pharma snickered before he slipped out the door of their home and headed out into the city to buy whatever he felt was too rare not to be easily made in the wilderness.

"What about building supplies?" Kaon asked,realizing they would have to have those in order to make a good enough home. Tarn merely shrugged.

"Tents will have to do until we get out there and start harvesting whatever we need."

"This is insane, you know. We won't last long out there."

"Better die out in the cyber woods than in Megatron's torture chambers, yes?" Tarn answered, Kaon silent now. It was certainly a chance of survival and perhaps someday when the war ended, they could return. Some cities might be in rubble, but the forests had been mostly left alone.

Tarn clasped his hands behind his back and vented softly, hoping he had made the right choice in the end.

***

Everyone moved quickly to get what they needed, no one wanting to spend an extra click in a place that might be dangerous. Riptide and Tesarus were just finishing putting some more energon cubes into their subspace when there was a knock on the door. All of them were already inside, so it wasn't one of them.

"Don't open the slagging door or I'll grind you into scrap metal." Tesarus hissed as Vos's mate extended a hand to silently ask if he should get it.

"Look out a window and see who it is." Kaon said as Riptide went to look. He raised an optic ridge when he saw it was a single shuttle mech standing there. Hardly a threat to all of them.

"It's a shuttle." Riptide said, not sure why he would be there at all. He moved aside as the others took turns to see, Astrotrain checking after Tesarus deemed the bot no threat. When the triple changer saw the bot below, he felt his spark ache.

Before anyone could stop him, he'd pushed past them all to the door and opened it, vermillion optics locking onto lighter red ones. They looked similar, both about the same size and shape. Astrotrain held more purple than the other bot did, but they shared the dark gray and the yellow head crest.

"Sire?" Astrotrain whispered, almost too shocked to speak. His spark said it was correct, but his mind was unsure.

"I'm so sorry! I never should have left you out there..." the shuttle choked out, clasping Astrotrain in a tight hug. Astrotrain squeezed back, memories he had shoved away flooding back. "I heard Megatron had a triple changer youngling and when I saw a brief image of you in the attack scene I knew...I knew you were my mechling."

Helex didn't know what was going on a first, but then his processor connected the dots. Astrotrain's slag of a Sire had come back and found his abandoned sparkling after all that time. Disgusting. He had tried to kill the bot and now he acted like he cared?! It was unbelievable and Astrotrain was falling for it!

"Sorry" is no excuse for abandoning one of your own protoflesh and energon! You left him for carrion, bot! I was the one who saved him and he is now mine and always will be. You no longer have claim to him." Helex rumbled dangerously from behind Astrotrain, his bulkier frame looming over the reunited shuttles.

"I underst-wait. You're one of the ones Megatron is searching for!" the mech realized, taking a step back.

"Speak a word and you'll regret it." Helex warned, pose threatening.

"Helex, he won't say anything. It's good to see him even if he and Carrier did try to get rid of me. It happens, I guess. Besides, if they hadn't done that I wouldn't have met all of you." Astrotrain pointed out with a smile. Helex huffed loudly but seemed to have calmed down enough to not attempt an attack on the other mech.

"I'm just glad to know you're safe and have someone close who loves you. You deserve more, but we couldn't give it..."

"No hard feelings. It can't be easy to have sparklings to care for." Astrotrain said, easy going and not willing to beg angry or upset over something so far in the past. It just wasn't his personality.

"Astrotrain, we will be leaving soon. Hurry this up."

"I won't be coming back again until the war is over. We can't." Astrotrain said, optics sorrowful. "But you can come with us. You and Carrier."

"He...probably wouldn't agree with that idea. He's a stubborn one, you know. And he thinks he's always right. By joining the Decepticon cause I don't know if we did ourselves any favors, though."

"Just stay out of the front lines and be safe. I want to come back and see you some time when the war is dead and gone. We're family no matter what happened back then." Astrotrain said, hugging his Sire one more time before he pulled away. "We have to leave now. Otherwise we could be trapped here."

"Astrotrian, they've been hunting you and the DJD ever since you fled." he said. "And because I have spoken with you now I don't think I will be permitted to live, either. So if we do meet again, it will be a miracle." he said quietly, optics sorrowful. He knew the penalty for speaking to traitors.

Helex took Astrotrain's wrist and gently tugged him back into the house. He didn't want to do this any longer. It was a danger to all of them and he had a bad feeling about it

"We have to go. But I'll see you when the war ends. You'll see."

"Promise me you'll be safe." Astrotrain's Sire begged, also stepping away.

"Always. I've got the best team to keep an optic on me out there! We're one big family, so we look out for each other!"

"I love you, little one. You're strong and I am sure you'll find a way in this world. Keep him safe, Helex. And thank you, for being the bot Blazon and I could never be."

Astrotrain was about to say more when his Sire suddenly went down, a loud crack of a blaster going off behind him. The triple changer stared at the open hole in his Sire's chest, his spark gone and his frame already turning gray with death. The mech howled his agony at the loss, barely knowing the bot but feeling the connection between them already.

"No! No, Helex!" Astrotrain sobbed as the smelter pulled him into the house and slammed the door, another fire of blasters scorching the door. A window shattered on the second floor, the area obviously surrounded. Tarn was shouting to get away from the windows and doors, Vos getting his energy up to create a ground bridge for escape.

"Get all the things we need and go! Go, go, go!" Tarn snarled, shoving Kaon and his mate through the ground bridge once it appeared, Pharma next to be pushed through.

"We can't leave him there!" Astrotrain growled, trying to pull back against Helex's hold.

"You can't help the dead, Astrotrain. Come on!" Helex grunted back, ducking just in time to avoid being hit by an acid bomb that had hit a wall and started to eat away at it.

Tesarus and Riptide had thrown themselves through the portal as well as Vos's mate, now only four remaining in the house. Tarn motioned for Helex and Astrotrain to go through, Helex barely managing to drag his partner through to safety. Tarn went last beside Vos, ending up on the other side of he ground bridge in a pile of mechs. Vos came a klick later, landing with a huff on top of the tank.

"We made it." Riptide said brightly, one of the mechs on the bottom of the pile. Pharma sorted, shoving bots off so he could get up. They had all run through and not thought the ground might not be flat.

"Good. Now get off of each other. It could cause damage."

Everyone picked themselves up and finally looked around at their location. They stood in the outer rim of the vast cyber forest, the group all staring up at the massive trunks of cyber trees and pushing past the scraggly metal underbrush. They just needed to find an energon spring and they'd do just fine. That and an oil river or pond to wash off in.

"Let's get moving. We have a lot of ground to cover before dark and we need to go as deep as we can. Kaon, do you have the map?"

"Right here." Kaon answered, the blind mech taking out a thin data pad with the faint image a bot had attempted to make of the forest hundreds of vorns before. No one really wanted to enter it since it was hard to find a way out and many didn't have the skills or numbers to survive. Mechanimals would easily pick off a single explorer, but a group would prove a harder challenge.

The bots obeyed their leader, starting to plod along into the forest, all hoping that this place would shield them from the prying optics of Megatron.


	14. Chapter 14

It took four solar cycles of travel for the tired group of escapees to find a suitable place to set up camp and start building their new homes. Right then home consisted of a few tents circled around an energon well, but if would do. They couldn't be picky when they were fighting to survive.

"This blows." Tesarus spat, struggling with pitching his tent. Riptide wasn't having much luck, either, the mech yelping when a nylon cable snapped and hit the side of his faceplate.

"Frag!"

Vos and his mate were attempting to get energon out of the natural spring, the way to reach the flowing pink fluid not an easy one. The well was a few yards too deep for any of them to reach easily, but according to Helex's scanners it would be able to support all of them for as long as they needed. If they could open it up and get to the energon, it would be all they needed.

~How will we reach it?~ Vos's mate, Nix, asked.

~We will have to climb down and dig until we can make it wide enough for all of us to travel there safely. Steps will also need to be included~ Vos answered, the two chattering away in Primal Vernacular like it was entirely natural. They cocked their heads in opposite directions when they glanced down into the well again, annoyed with the difficult task at hand. They would figure it out, of course. They were the smartest bots in the group other than Pharma and Tarn.

***

Tarn felt miserable. He wasn't sure what to do anymore, his sense of leadership muddled now that they were in something so unfamiliar to him he might as well have entered another planet entirely. He knew how to hunt, torture, and kill. He didn't know how to fully preserve the pack he had acquired and keep them all safe from Megatron. It scared him that he had ever gone against the warlord in the beginning, once having been such a loyal follower.

'All because I love Pharma and my soldiers like family. It is weakness. It will surely bring my downfall.' Tarn thought, laying on his somewhat soft traveling mat. At least they had brought a lot of blankets and pillows with them to make things a little more like home. 'Was it worth it? That is the better thought.'

"You're brooding again. Quit it." Pharma scolded from the other side of the large tent, the medic arranging some of his items before returning them to his subspace.

"I am NOT brooding." Tarn growled back, his vocalizer making Pharma's spark flutter with a sense of warning and also love.

Pharma smiled and left his work where it was, pouncing on the tank with a soft purr. Tarn grinned, showing a set of dentas with a chip in the front. He had not put the mask back on, having left it as a little gift for the ones who found them in their home. It was fitting to leave it behind and all that was tied to it.

"I'm the doctor, Tarn. If something hurts...let me fix it for you." Pharma soothed, a hand slyly ghosting over Tarn's warm middle plating to his interface covers. The larger mech rumbled with interest, not opposed to the affections whatsoever.

"Doctor Pharma, please do fix me. I am in need of it." Tarn chuckled, spike and valve cover sliding aside like his mate wanted. Despite being a dominant programmed mech for the most part, he would occasionally let Pharma have some fun and spike him.

Pharma smirked, hand rubbing the handsome black and purple length Tarn had offered him. The tank grunted and rolled his hips a few times, his spike standing at attention and starting to weep fluid from the slit just below the sharp tip.

"So handsome..." Pharma whispered, his spike freeing itself as he crawled on top of his partner. "I adore you, Tarn. You have changed so much from what you once were. I like the real you better." he whispered, reaching out and cupping Tarn's faceplate in his hands.

Tarn purred softly at all the compliments, spreading his legs in offering to the other bot. Pharma took it and pushed his spike inside the velvet soft folds of protoflesh. Tarn's purring got louder, the mech taking the average sized spike quite well. It was a good fit, not too tight and not too lose so that he felt nothing. It was perfect.

"So you do not disapprove of the lack of a mask?" Tarn asked, a smirk on his now very expressive faceplate.

"I want to see your ugly self in all its glory. Frag the mask." Pharma teased before he stole a kiss. "Besides," he said as he pulled away, "I get to fully kiss you now. That's an added bonus."

Tarn bucked his hips in a silent urge for Pharma to get moving, the medic obliging him right away. He set a good pace, strong and steady. The tank was sweet as could be, nibbling and kissing along Pharma's neck and jaw. He knew then that he had made the right choice to disobey and keep the ones he cared for safe. He was completing a duty of another sort from the area that was his true self, the one that hadn't been manipulated by Shockwave's physical experiments and Megatron's mental tortures.

"I was not always so evil and cruel." Tarn said quietly, Pharma hugging him around his chest plates as the medic ground his hips into his frame with a clang.

"I know you weren't. It wasn't your fault what happened to you." Pharma murmured, exchanging another quick kiss, savoring the surprisingly clean and pure taste of Tarn. "But now you are free."

Tarn held Pharma even tighter, jerking when he felt a rush of warmth fill his valve and a pleasant pressure upon his walls. Pharma had overloaded and he followed soon after, his valve dribbling with a mix of their clear and silvery fluids. It was nice to know they could make love, not simply rut with one another until they overloaded.

I love you.

It was not spoken, but it was known between them and that was all that mattered. Sometimes words are not needed. They do not always have the quality of truth as the pure, unspoken feelings.

***

Helex could barely get Astrotrain to calm down, the mech so distraught by what had happened right before his optics that he couldn't wrap his processor around what had happened. Someone had murdered his Sire and therefore killed his Carrier as they were spark bonded. It was hellish to watch the event over and over again in his mind and not know who had been the one to fire the shot and to realize he had no other family left other than his adoptive one.

"Astrotrain, you have to calm down and think! Astro! Please..." Helex begged, embracing the triple changer and hoping some of what he said would get through to him. It hadn't done much so far, but he figured if he kept repeating it...

"If I had let him come inside this would never have happened! If I had never answered the door he wouldn't be dead! I killed my own Sire!" Astrotrain howled with emotional pain, optics watering with washer fluid.

"Astrotrain, it's not you! How can you say that?!" Helex snarled, squeezing him harder. He would not allow his mate to live with a sense of guilt like that.

"It's true! It's true..." Astrotrain sobbed, hands clawing at his faceplate. "Helex, I have to find him...I have to make sure he's properly taken care of!"

"You can't go back! Do you think he wants you to get shot, too?! You're insane to believe that!" Helex snapped, optics blazing. "You are playing the part of a fool to do so. I know you aren't the smartest bot out there but I know you aren't that dumb. Come on, Astro. Calm down and THINK."

Astrotrain nodded, resting his forehead against the warm frame of his companion. He did need to think. It would he hard, but he had to do it.

Helex quietly sat their in the tent with him, letting Astrotrain work things out his own way for a while, just offering a companion and warmth. Even if he had lost someone he somehow loved and a family member, he would always have a big smelter to turn to if he needed him.

"Just rest and try to calm down. You need to mourn, but you also have to remember moving on is just as important-even more so in my opinion. I feel in love with you because you were a relatively cheerful, easy going bot. Not this moping slag you are now, okay? So snap out of it for me." Helex half joked, pressing a kiss to the side of the triple changer's helm.

"Alright, Helex. I'll do it for you."


	15. Chapter 15

It took the group a while to settle in, a good vorn and a half to be exact. Their camp had turned into a home after that amount of time, tents replaced with structures they could call home and the natural energon spring that had once proven a difficulty now open and easily accessible. It was a happy place, all the happier because there were two couples expecting sparklings within a few deca cycles.

Tesarus and Riptide had been trying for quite some time and had no luck, but amazingly once they had settled into their new sanctuary within the safety of the cyber forest, Riptide took with spark and they were happily awaiting the little ones. Helex and Astrotrain were also expecting, the triple changer's middle swollen with the promise of a big litter.

"You look good so far. Just go easy on the lower grade energon. It's not as good for the bitlets." Pharma advised, having been monitoring the two couples and the wellbeing of the unborn sparklings for quite some time now. He was happy, their little colony starting to grow. At least they had the energon to feed the little things. That was a blessing.

"What about...other activities? Does he need any more CNA donations, if you get what I mean?" Helex asked with a smirk, Astrotraon jabbing him in the side with his elbow. Pharma snorted, waving a hand around in a dismissive way.

"If you insist on doing that to the poor thing, being on hands and knees is best so your weight doesn't crush the little ones. And don't pound him hard. It causes damage in there as well. That's all I care to say." Pharma grunted, not going into detail just because he didn't feel like it. Helex seemed happy enough with that answer, rubbing the yellow crest on Astrotrain's helm in an affectionate way.

"Sounds good, Doc. Let's go back to our berthroom, Astrotrain. We have to make sure the sparklings will be strong..."

"You a pain in the aft sometimes, Helex. Really, I don't know what to do with you." Astrotrain grumbled, following Helex out of the med bay conjoined to Tarn and Pharma's living quarters. Thankfully Pharma had most of his equipment with him and they had been able to set it up and power it with refined oil and solar paneling Vos and his mate had cleverly come up with.

Helex ushered Astrotrain back into the privacy of their home and nuzzled his cheek in a loving way, optics warm as could be. He adored the bot and was honestly feeling better than ever to think they were creating life together. As cliche as the thought was to him, it was comforting.

'Just hope I can be a good enough Sire. They need a family who doesn't let go of them. I'm sure Astro will attend to that, but still. I want to be sure everything works out the way it should for the little guys.' Helex said to himself as Astrotrain got on his hands and knees, aft pointed upwards in an inviting way once he was on the berth and settled.

Helex clambered on top of him, very gently mouthing at the nape of his neck. Astrotrain rumbled quietly and pulled back his valve cover, the area softer than usual thanks to his condition of carrying. It did a lot of strange things to the frame until the sparklings were birthed.

"You look great as always, Astrotrain." Helex praised, spike springing free of its cover and becoming hard within clicks. The scent of mech hormones was wafting sweetly from the exposed valve, getting him all riled up.

"Love you, too, Helex. Now get on with it. I'm feeling empty." Astrotrain laughed, turning around enough so he could snatch a kiss from the smelter's soft lips.

"As you command, oh great and might triple changer." Helex teased, the sharp and healthy tip of his spike pushing in between protoflesh folds of the valve and sinking slowly into the warm depths of the shuttle-train mech.

Astrotrain spread his legs further and vented softly, glad Helex was going nice and slow to prevent any internal damage to the growing sparklings. They were usually careful anyway, neither of them all that excited about rough interfacing. It just wasn't their kind of thing to begin with.

Helex huffed and rumbled as he started a smooth pace, hips rolling into Astrotrain's instead of clanging against them. It was a steady rhythm, nothing too hard so that it hurt or too weak so that it was torturous for his lover. It was just right. The sweet sounds Astrotrain moaned out in his multi-toned voice were the most handsome things Helex felt he had ever heard, even rivaling Tarn's singing.

"Helex...frag....oh, frag! Mmmhhh...Oooh...unff! Right there!" Astrotrain panted, bucking his hips when the large bot hit an internal node cluster near the taut gel wall of the gestation chamber. Helex aimed for the place again and was glad he hit it with a firm ending thrust, overloading along with his partner at that moment. Their twin shouts of bliss mingled together for a click before they hushed, spent from valve and spike.

"So good...how can you always be so slagging good, huh?" Helex asked his mate as he gently rolled them onto their sides in the berth. It didn't hurt Astrotrain's back when they lay like that, so they had taken to spooning and a lot of cuddling like that.

"Because I'm your mate and this is the best you can get." Astrotrain joked, exchanging some affectionate kisses with the mech before settling down. He felt good now, a new rush of transfluid now offered to the sparklings. With luck it would be accepted and the little ones would use it to further develop their protoforms before they emerged.

Helex rested a hand on the rounded middle Astrotrain now carried around with him, rubbing calmijg circles into the warm plating and protoflesh there. It always got the triple changer tired and he liked when the bot rested and didn't try to help out too much around their home or with other chores. It meant the others of their big group had to pull extra weight since both Riptide and Astrotrain were expecting, it was a fine price to pay. Helex just didn't want his companion to over exert himself and somehow cause damage.

"Rest up. We have a lot ahead of us, buddy."

"Sure do. I have to...you know...get these out." Astrotrain mumbled, yawning widely as he started to succumb to Helex's tender pets.

"That's why you need to recharge more. Let your frame put all its energy where it needs to go."

"Mmmm...m'kay...night." Astrotrain mumbled, optics dulling quickly as he started to power down and slip into recharge like his mate wanted. There really was little use in fighting sleep since it always won in the end.

***

Two quartex passed and there were two new litters of sparklings to take care of. Tesarus and Riptide had four in the beginning, two sadly stillborn when they arrived. But they were not dwelling on the past loss, instead caring for their remaining two creations like the loving parental figures they had never expected to be.

Helex and Astrotrain ended up with a trine, three healthy and quite large mechlings now a part of their one big family. Astrotrain had had a Pit of a time during the last part of his carrying term, but in the end it had all been worth it, the two rewarded with three tiny blessings.

Astrotrain lay resting in the berth, two of his six activated fuel lines occupied by newborns. The almost unseen rubber nubs were spaced out across the sides of his middle like mechanimals would for their young, the lines connected to his massive energon tank. It was all filtered and safe energon for the trine, so they hadn't bothered to filter any cubes from the spring. Astrotrain had more than enough fuel to go around.

"Uppercut's being a brat." Helex growled as he handed a fussing sparkling back over to his Carrier. Astrotrain smiled tiredly, Uppercut burbling loudly when he was placed in the arms of the triple changer.

"He just likes his Carrier better. It happens. It's sorta how Steelquake likes you more. He just deals with me because he knows I have the energon." Astrotrain chuckled as Steelquake pulled away from a fuel line and locked optics on his Sire before he made an expectant peep to be picked up. "See what I mean?"

"Brats. All of them. Every single one." Helex said affectionately as he picked up Steelquake, the gray and tan mechling giggling as he was huggled close and kissed on the forehead.

Uppercut, the pure purple mechling of the trine and Lockjaw, the orange, yellow, and gray mechling cuddled into Astrotrain's open arms as he lay on his side, seeking warmth and protection as Steelquake was given attention from his Sire. It brought a smile to Astrotrain's faceplate to see a once vicious killer turned into a family bot. Sure, he still had a temper and could be moody, but he had changed a huge deal ever since he'd picked up the abandoned mechling from the battlefield.

'Good thing he did. Primus sure does do some weird things to make his grand plan work out.' Astrotrain thought as he leaned back and relaxed, glad to savor the good moments in life.

They had all come a long way from home, but in a way they had never really left it behind. Hunting brothers bound purely by duty had transformed into real brothers who watched each other's backs and kept thief word. There was no more killing or malicious intent between any of them, the group having turned somewhat peaceful. The war had changed them all, but their true selves were finally emerging again. They had started out as regular bots again, hoping to find the parts of their past lives that Megatron and Shockwave had tried so hard to hide.

'Now all we have to do is wait it out and hopefully the war will end. When it does we can return and repair what damage we can and hopefully these factions can fade away. We just need a whole lot of paint to cover the damn things over with.' Astrotrain thought with a hint of a grin, looking at his mate's poorly painted tan splotch that covered the brand.

And so the DJD and their lovers waited, optics turned toward Iacon and beyond with the belief the war would soon come to an end. It was only fitting that other bots got to have a happy ending for themselves, too.


End file.
